"Paul Bocuse In Your Kitchen;" "The Culinary Cyclist;" "You Can Do Anything With Crepes" - food for the Tour de France

Date I made these recipes:  July 24, 2016 – the end of the Tour de France          

Paul Bocuse in Your Kitchen – An Introduction to Classic French Cooking by Paul Bocuse; translated, adapted, and with editors' notes by Philip and Mary Hyman

Published by:  Pantheon Books

© 1982

Purchased at Bloomington Crime Prevention Association (BCPA) Sale 2016

Recipe:  Bayaldi – p. 280 (similar to Ratatouille but layered like a casserole)

The Culinary Cyclist – A Cookbook and Companion for the Good Life by Anna Brones (vegetarian/Gluten-free)

Published by:  Taking the Lane / Elly Blue Publishing

©2013

Purchased at Kona Bay Books, Kona, Hawaii

Recipe:  Tapenade – p. 66

You Can Do Anything With Crepes – as Appetizers, Main Courses, Desserts by Virginia Pasley and Jane Green

Published by Simon and Schuster

© 1970

Purchased at Etsy

Recipe:  Cocoa Crepes – p. 34

Well folks, today the three-week-long Tour de France (bicycle competition) ended – "enfin" (French for "finally") - and as is usual and customary, we are celebrating our return to normalcy (plus the return of the remote to me) with French food.  This celebration also let's me sneak in a nod to Bastille Day (July 14^th) which I missed as I was busy with other things...like maybe watching the Tour?

Even though I am not the bicyclist my husband is (well, true confession:  I don't bicycle at all), I enjoy watching the Tour as they often ride through parts of France and Spain that we have visited.  This year, the guys were all back on Mount Ventoux and I have the most hilarious memories of a car trip up that mountain with my friend and travel companion on that trip, Susan, and my French friend's grandparents who drove us around France for the day.  

Quick backstory:  In the summer of 1988, my French friend, Edith (pronounced Ay-Deet) and her French step-grandmother, Marcelle, stopped to visit me while on a cross-country trip through the United States.  My friend, Susan, who spoke fluent French, spent a lot of time with us, and at the end of their trip, they invited me and Susan to visit in the fall.  Well, bien sur (of course) right? You should know that although I minored in Spanish in college, I also learned some French and spoke it pretty well.  That said, it pays to have someone fluent along for the ride and so – Susan!   This is especially true in Provence where Edith lives as the Provencal accent takes some getting used to.

And so, the ride.  Edit charged her grandparents with keeping me and Susan occupied one day when she had to work and so that is how we ended up sightseeing on Mount Ventoux, the same mountain that the Tour riders go up and down during their three weeks on the road.  Mount Ventoux can be a little challenging in a car with a lot of switchbacks (and a lot more challenging on a bike) but still folks.  Still.  Cars make it up and down this thing without incident every years except for ours.

Now since I believe I repeat this story every Tour, I'll spare you the details (especially since we still have no idea how this happened) except to say that when grand-pere rounded a wicked corner, Susan somehow, inexplicably ended up practically on top of me with her feet stuck under the front passenger seat. (And no, she was not wearing her seatbelt thus, the problem.)  Grand-pere had to pull over he (and we) was laughing so hard.  I have often said that the entire trip to Paris and then Provence could have been dubbed "Lucy and Ethel go to France."  That should tell you something.  (PS—after that hilarious ride, we went back to the grandparents' house for a midday meal with wine.  Lots and lots of wine.  I don't know what it says about me that I went glass for glass with grand-pere, who kept filling up my glass with quite the challenging twinkle in his eye, but there it is.)

And so every year like clockwork, I evaluate my French cookbooks, pull a few off the shelf, select the recipes and get to work.  Those books not selected go back on the shelf until next year's Tour is upon us.  So let's talk about the books I used this year.

Book number one – Paul Bocuse In Your Kitchen – is the second Paul Bocuse book I've used.  I made "Soup au Pistou" (similar to Minestrone) for last year's Tour from  Bocuse's Regional French Cooking and it was delicious.  This year, I had another hankering for vegetables and so made Bayaldi, a Turkish dish that is similar to  the famous Provencal dish, Ratatouille in that it uses some of the same vegetables; this dish is layered with zucchini, eggplant, onions and tomatoes.  Although Swiss cheese can be added on top, I went with Bocuse's alternative, olive oil, as a topping.  My only issue with this dish and it is minor, is that I ended up making 3x the spice mixture called for in this recipe as his amounts did not make enough.  Well, at least not in my humble and decidedly non-French opinion.

I liked this cookbook because it offered a wide range of fun French dishes, some of which were better suited to fall or winter, but others perfect for spring and summer.  The instructions, which were translated from French, were not too bad although I had a few "moments" with these instructions just because they were kind of clunky—very similar to how I speak French! 

While the French cookbook had a great range of recipes, I was somewhat challenged to find something I liked in the tiny tome, The Culinary Cyclist.  The book focuses mainly on vegetarian and gluten-free dishes and while there is nothing wrong with that, I was just not into buying a few ingredients that I would never use again just to make a few dishes.  As an example, the recipe for "Dutch Apple Pie with Cardamom" requires sorghum flour, rice flour, almond meal and xanthan gum so I ruled that out.  Some recipes were more doable but didn't float my boat, such as "The Perfect quinoa Picnic Salad with Mustard Citrus Vinaigrette."  And for the longest time, "Gluten Free Olive Oil and Polenta Cake" was in the running until I just decided it was too boring and went instead with the Tapenade recipe two pages over.

This recipe would have been a hit with me had it not tasted so salty but Andy thought it was fine.  In terms of degree of difficulty in making it, it was a piece of cake so that was good.  And tapenade (a popular dish in the French region, Provence) paired well with the Bayaldi so that was also tres bon (good). 

As to the salt, the only salt added was just a teaspoon of sea salt, making me wonder if I should have rinsed the black olives before using them?  The instructions don't say so but as we all know, instructions can be sneaky.  Plus, my palate may also be more salt sensitive than yours or than Andy's. 

As to the last dish, Cocoa Crepes, nothing but nothing says "French" like crepes.  But like anything, these things are best when made well.  And it's not like I botched them per se but they were not the best looking things I ever made, unlike the crepes I made back in 1988 when Edith and Marcelle came to visit.  It was the summer of the drought and the poor ladies just about in my un-air-conditioned kitchen but they were determined that I should learn how to make crepes and so I learned.  At that time, I had the right size pan – 5" is ideal – so that helped.  Their crepes, of course, were perfect, but I did my part and got a few that weren't too bad looking.  And this was tres bon. (Good)

This time around though, the only skillet/ crepe pan I had was about 7 inches.  A 7" pan is just fine for making my own manicotti shells (so easy) but manicotti shells are generally bigger and thicker and so this size skillet works for me. Crepes though, are best really thin and benefit from a smaller pan (unless you have a large just-for-crepes-pan in your kitchen battery which I don't) and though I tried my best to pour just enough batter to coat the bottom, they were a little large in the middle so the first one I made didn't quite set right.  The second one I made (the one Andy ate) though, was much better.

And wouldn't you know, we just happened to have a can of Redi Whip in the fridge so we used that as a topping.  If I had chocolate syrup, I might have really gone to town.  Next time.

By the way, some of you might remember this restaurant, The Magic Pan, where you could get crepes of all shapes, sizes and fillings, from sweet to savory.  I first went to one in 1976 in New York City and thought it was an awesome idea.  And when I moved to Minneapolis and found out there was one downtown I was practically giddy.  It's the littlest things...

Please note though, that I made half the recipe and ended up with just enough batter for two large crepes.  The entire recipe is supposed to make 18-24 which I think is just a tiny exaggeration but oh well.

So this concludes my "Vive la France, Vive la Tour" post.  Bon Appétit!

Bayaldi – Serves 4-6 – from Paul Bocuse In Your Kitchen

4 medium zucchini weighing about 1 ½ pounds total

2 small eggplants, weighing about 1 ¼ pounds total

1 ½ pounds tomatoes

½ pound onions

1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed

1 teaspoon thyme leaves

½ bay leaf, crushed

Salt, pepper

Butter (for the dish)

1 ½ cup grated Swiss cheese (see author Note)

5 tablespoons butter (total) broken into pieces (or olive oil – see author Note)

Note:  If preferred, the cheese can be omitted and ½ cup of olive oil used instead of butter.  In this case, pour all of the oil over the surface of the vegetables before putting them in the oven.

Preheat the oven to 425F.

Wash the vegetables and wipe them dry, then cut them into slices about ½ inch thick (if using a large eggplant rather than 2 smaller ones, cut it in half lengthwise before slicing).  Keep all the vegetables separate from each other.

Butter a large baking dish (preferably earthenware or enameled cast iron).  Cover the bottom of the dish with the onions, then make a layer of zucchini and sprinkle with a little of the garlic, thyme, and bay leaf, salt and pepper.  Next, make a layer of eggplant, and lastly, a layer of tomato, seasoning each layer as you did the zucchini. (Ann's Note:  You should probably double, if not triple, the seasoning mixture as it makes very little in the first place and you will run out.)

Dot the surface with half the butter (Ann's Note: or, as the author said, 1/3 cup of olive oil), then place in the oven for 30 minutes.  At the end of this time, sprinkle with the cheese (Ann's Note:  I omitted the cheese), dot with the remaining butter, and bake 20 to 30 minutes more or until golden brown on top.  (If the vegetables dry out during the first 30 minutes' baking, cover them with aluminum foil; remove the foil for only the last 10 minutes of the baking time.)

Serving suggestions:  Serve with roast or boiled meat.  Ann's Note:  I cooked some rice and used the vegetables as a topping.

Author's Note:  Instead of making layers as described here, you can simply make parallel lines of overlapping vegetables and bake them in individual baking dishes rather than in one large one.

Ann's Final Note:  The only butter I used was to butter the baking dish.  Once I layered all the vegetables, I poured the 1/3 cup olive oil over the surface and baked it and it was fine.  I also covered the baking dish with foil as directed.  Finally, as I said above, you'll need to triple the spice mixture or you won't have enough for all the layers (three in all).

Tapenade – Serving size not given (about 2 cups?) – from The Culinary Cyclist

1 6-ounce can of organic black olives  

½ of a roasted pepper, chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ cup almonds

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon rosemary or Herbes de Provence

½ teaspoon black pepper

Mix all the ingredients in food process until well blended.  Store in an airtight container in refrigerator until serving.

Ann's Note:  Although it does not say to do this, I recommend rinsing the black olives just in case they are in a salt brine.  (I must confess I didn't even look but I found the dish a tad salty.)  You might also want to start with a quarter teaspoon of sea salt, adding more as needed.

Cocoa Crepes – makes 18-24 crepes – from You Can Do Anything with Crepes

2 eggs

½ cup flour

2 tablespoons cocoa

¼ cup sugar

1 cup milk with a little cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon butter, melted and cooled

Put all ingredients into a blender and blend for about 30 seconds at half speed.  Or mix eggs and flour by hand or in a mixer adding cocoa and sugar and then milk gradually, beating all the time.  Add vanilla and the cooled, melted butter and beat once more.  Led stand covered and hour or two.

Heat a small skillet or crepe pan – about 5 inches in diameter, brush with butter and when butter bubbles up, pour about a tablespoon and a half of crepe batter into pan, swirling so batter covers the pan.  Cook for about 1 minute, check for browning and watch carefully – both the cocoa and the sugar cause crepes to burn easily.  Turn crepe over and cook for about a half minute on the other side.  Turn out on paper towels.

This recipe will make from 18-24 crepes depending on the size of the pan and amount of batter used for each crepe.  These freeze well.  Ann's Note:  I used a larger pan but given that I halved the recipe, I only got 2 large crepes out of the deal.  Turns out that was perfect for our two-person household but if you want more, make the full recipe.

"Bocuse's Regional French Cooking" - Vegetable, Basil and Garlic Soup (Soupe au pistou) for Le Tour de France

Date I made this recipe:  July 26, 2014, the final day of the Tour de France

Bocuse's Regional French Cooking by Paul Bocuse

Published by:  Flammarion

©1997

Purchased at Arc's Value Village Thrift Stores

Recipe:  Soupe au Pistou (Vegetable, Basil and Garlic Soup) – p. 68

Well o-la-la- folks, yesterday the Le Tour de France wrapped up three weeks of heavy-duty racing and hill climbing and now what are we supposed to do?

My answer:  celebrate regaining control of the remote.  My husband's answer:  go out on more bike rides (although not in France).

And there you have it!  And congratulations to this year's winner, Chris Froome for his impressive victory. 

As is usual and customary though, we observe the end of this race down the Champs Elysees by making a French meal and this year's selection was a good one – the famous Soupe au pistou – a dish that slow simmers on the stove (thankfully, no oven involved) and is rich with beans and vegetables and all kinds of other goodness.

This dish hails from Provence, in the south of France, and although I've been to that region twice, I never had it before so it was kind of nice to close that circle.  I love how it makes use of so many summer vegetables and just flat out looks healthy to eat! 
And actually, my version of this was totally vegetarian since I left out the [raw] pork rind in the recipe, mostly because I couldn't find it but also because the cheese used for the toppings wiped out my budget and I wasn't in the mood to find a substitute so we went without and it was fine.

So.  Paul Bocuse, our chef/author, is considered by many to be one of the greatest French chefs ever and one of the first chefs to unveil a French "nouvelle cuisine" menu. Traditionally, French menus are heavy on the sauces, heavy on the wines and just plain heavy.  Nouvelle cuisine focuses on light sauces or broths and fresh ingredients, particularly fresh vegetables. The soup recipe definitely falls into the nouvelle cuisine category.

Hailing from Lyon, Chef Boucuse is now 89 years old and – interesting factoid - in 1969, was one of the chefs preparing the menus for the maiden flight of the Concorde, an airplane that made the journey from France to the US in three hours.  C'est tres "cool."  Unfortunately, I never got to travel on it and taste his cuisine because the cost of the flight was tres cher (very expensive) but I flew on Air France once and was amazed to be handed a beautiful menu of all the food served on the flight, including perfectly poached salmon (and I hate salmon), bread and lots of it and wine!  For free!  Classy outfit, that Air France.

This book is divided into recipes by region:  Lyonnais; Provence; Bordelais; Perigord; Brittany-Normand and Alsace.  And each region's section features foods found in that region, as follows:

Lyonnais – Cabbage soup; pumpkin soup; cheese, eggs and sometimes sausage entrees and the famous Boeuf Bourguignon.  I thought about making a macaroni and cheese dish (gratin de macaroni) but that was too heavy for summertime and required the oven.  Mais non.  (But no.)  

Provence – I love Provence.  Love it, love the food, love the little towns, love.  Today's featured recipe, Soupe au pistou is Provencal and it was very good.  Besides, I loved walking around the house pronouncing it because it just sounds so French!  Go figure, right! (Word of warning:  speaking French will give you lockjaw.  I had to "rehabilitate" my jaw and mouth after both of my trips.)  Other recipes that sounded fun were olive and caper spread a/k/a tapenade; Nice-style salad a/k/a Salade nicoise and several fish recipes including Bouillabaisse (Provencal Fish Stew). 

Bordelais – This area if French wine country, home to the famous Bordeaux wines.  It also borders the Spanish Basque country, a region of northern Spain that is a mix of French and Spanish cultures.  Because of that, you'll find Basque-influenced dishes like Basque-style cod and Basque-style chicken along with the famous French cassoulet, a dish that combines many meats and sausages with beans that is baked in a casserole.  Since I'm not big on duck or lamb which are two of the main ingredients, I passed on that dish and besides, it requires slow-cooking and that was not going to happen on a day it was 90 degrees outside.  Non.

Perigord – is in the south-west region of France, an hour's drive from Bordelais and here, the recipes feature preserved meats like duck and pork as well as the world-famous and often controversial Foie Gras (basically fatted duck liver). There's also a recipe for Garlic Soup, a dish I've heard about but have never eaten or made – yet.

Brittany-Normandy– This region, made famous during WWII when the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy, is heavy on seafood seeing as how it sits on the opposite side of England on the British Channel/Atlantic Ocean.  Dishes like Mussels in White Wine; Coquilles Saint-Jacques (Brittany-style Scallops); Stuffed Clams and [Holy] Mackerel take up the front half of this section while veal recipes finish it off.

En fin (Finally), we have the Alsace region, sometimes referred to as Alsace-Lorraine, famous for various savory and sweet tarts.  This region borders Germany and so there are also dishes for sausages and sauerkraut for you to try.

And so that concludes our culinary tour to complement the bicycle tour that just took place in France (and Belgium and Spain) this week.

I liked the Soupe au Pistou a lot as it was easy, used next to no heat (you simmer it for two hours), and it was easily halved.  Since we are only two, I often cut a dish in half to ensure we don't have endless leftovers.

In the "If I were to make this again" department I have just two minor things:  1) I think I would have cooked the beans all by themselves for a while to avoid having mushy vegetables and 2) I might have added pancetta to the recipe to add a bit of fat and flavor but like I said, I just didn't want to spend more money on the recipe than I did and felt it was essential to have the cheese for topping rather than the meat.  And perhaps if I went to an actual butcher I might have found the required [raw] pork rind but that was just too much effort for a hot day.  I love summer – bring on the heat – but it is wilting to go from store to store.

And so there you go: Viva la France, Viva le Tour, Viva la Soupe au Pistou!

Vegetable, Basil and Garlic Soup (Soupe au Pistou) – 6 servings

Ann's Notes:  1) Pistou is a mixture of garlic, basil, olive oil and tomatoes that is added just before serving.) Pistou is made by grinding the garlic and basil with a mortar and pestle.  I don't have one and tried to improvise and that was fraught with peril.  In the end, I decided to use my mini food processor and that was okay but not the best.  Search the internet for other solutions. 2) You will need to soak the beans overnight; cooking time is 2.5 hours. 3) As mentioned above, good luck finding raw pork rind.  I couldn't even find a substitute on the internet.  Were I do to this again though, I might use pancetta as it is pretty fatty and should yield the flavor Chef Bocuse was looking for. 

½ pound fresh or dried pinto beans

½ pound fresh or dried white beans (like navy beans)

½ pound green beans

6 carrots

2 medium potatoes

1 white onion

1 leek

2 zucchini

3 quarts water

½ pound pork rind

Salt

Pepper

3 ½ ounces shell-shaped pasta

For the pistou:

1 pound ripe tomatoes

6 cloves garlic

10 stems basil

Salt

Pepper

¾ cup olive oil

For serving:

1 ½ cups grated Parmesan cheese

1 cup grated Gruyere cheese

If using dried pinto and white beans, begin soaking them a day in advance.  Place them in a large mixing bowl, add enough cold water to cover and let soak overnight.  The next day, drain thoroughly.

If using fresh pinto and white beans, they need only be shelled.

Trim and string the green beans and cut into ½-inch lengths.

Peel and dice the carrots, potatoes, and onion.  Trim of all but the white park of the leek, rinse thoroughly under cold water, and dice.  Rinse the zucchini (but do not peel) and dice.

Place the water in a large stock pot, add the pork rind and bring to a boil, skimming off the foam that rises to the top.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add the beans and diced vegetables and simmer over low heat for 2 hours.  Ann's Note:  Since I didn't use pork rind, I added the vegetables and let that mixture come to a boil before turning the heat to low.  If I had to do it over again though, I would have added just the beans, brought them to a boil and then simmered them for a bit before adding the vegetables.  The beans were fine but some were a bit chewy.

As the soup cooks, prepare the pistou:  Peel, seed and chop the tomatoes and place them in a colander to drain.  Peel the garlic, place in a mortar and crush with a pestle.  (See Ann's Note above.)  Remove the leaves from the basil, chop and add them to the mortar.  Remove a few pieces of the cooked potato from the simmering soup with a slotted spoon, drain and add to the mortar.  Work all the ingredients in the mortar together, grinding them with the pestle to obtain a smooth paste.  Season with salt and pepper.

Add the olive oil a little at a time, starting with a very thin stream and whisking after each addition until thoroughly incorporated, as for a mayonnaise. (Ann's Note:  even when I cut the recipe in half, I felt like that was too much olive oil so yes, I added it a little at a time and very carefully as well!)

When the mixture is blended, add the drained tomatoes. 

About 15 minutes before the soup has finished cooking, add the pasta and cook until tender.  Remove the pork rind.  Add the pistou mixture and mix well.  Cover a tureen (if you are using one) and let it stand for 10 minutes before serving.  Place the Parmesan and Gruyere in separate bowls and pass to sprinkle over the soup.

Ann's Note:  The price of Parmesan cheese has gone up considerably such that I have taken to going to a few stores that I know sell it by weight and search until I find the cheapest block.  You do not need all the cheese called for in this recipe, not even if making a half recipe.  And Gruyere cheese has always been pricey so again, I looked until I found an inexpensive block and used that. 

The search for the cheapest cheese reminds me of "Mousier" Keith, a friend of my friend, Susan, who was living in Paris when Susan and I went to France in 1988 (Oh my God, what a hilarious trip that was).  At any rate, Mousier Keith was a starving artist and told me and Susan about how he always scrounged around the French markets, pricing potatoes (in the same way I did my cheese).  When Susan later left Paris to go to England to visit her mother's family, Keith and I went out for dinner which I bought because the poor man was starving.  But to this day, I regret swapping out my very lovely vegetable salad for his seafood salad (in oil as is customary) because I took pity on him.  And by the way, Susan and I always referred to him as "Mousier Keith" because he kept trying to call us to set up a meeting time and when the hotel gave us the messages, they always said "Mousier Keith t'a téléphone hier soir!  (Mr. Keith called while you were out!)

"Normandy Gastronomique" & "Step-by-Step Tapas & Spanish Cookery" - for Le Tour De France (bike ride) - Warm Scallop Salad and Gazpacho

Date I made these recipes:  July 27, 2014 (The last day of Le Tour de France)

Normandy Gastronomique by Jane Sigal; Foreword by Anne Willan; Photography by Debbie Patterson

Published by:  Abbeville Press (Out of Print book)

ISBN:  1-55859-496-5

Purchased at Strand [bookstore] NYC

Recipe:  Warm Scallop Salad with Cress and Vegetables (Salade de Coquilles Saint-Jacques) – p. 36-37

Step-By-Step Tapas & Spanish Cookery

Published by:  Greenwich  Editions

ISBN:  0-86288-021-1

Purchased at Arc's Value Village Thrift Stores, Richfield, MN

Recipe:  Gazpacho – p. 33

Bienvenue (Welcome) to my annual Le Tour de France recipe post!  As is usual and customary, I celebrated the end of the greatest bike race in the world by finding something French to make.  And then this year, because I have a tie-in to Spain, I threw in something Spanish as well.  "De nada." (Spanish for "You're welcome.)

Still, despite the vast collection of cookbooks of all topics and all cuisines, I was getting a little nervous about a French recipe until I happened upon the Normandy cookbook on a recent trip to the Strand (bookstore) in NYC.  I took it as a sign that I found this book during the first week of this year's tour.  Plus, the foreword was written by Anne Willan, a celebrated cookbook author whom I've met and talked to when she came to Minneapolis years ago to promote a book.

The route of the Le Tour de France changes every year and this year, it just skirted around the Normandy region of France but it was close enough to merit an inclusion.  Still, the cooking of Normandy is pretty hearty fare and I was almost in despair of finding a recipe that worked well in the summer when voila!, the very light Coquilles Saint-Jacques just leapt of the page.  Again, signs pointed to "yes."

Elsewhere in this cookbook, you'll find a lot of recipes for seafood and chicken, sometimes in cream sauce, sometimes not, duck, fresh vegetables, apples and a wonderful apple byproduct, Calvados, a most yummy apple brandy.  As tempting as all those were, I was feeling in the mood for something light and something seafood.  This recipe fits the bill and then some.

Turning our attention to Spain, here's how gazpacho fits into this picture:  in 1994, my husband and I went to Spain and stopped outside the city of Granada for the night having driven and toured the region all day long.  While eating in a small restaurant, we observed a group of Americans – about 6 or 8 in all – "practicing" their Spanish.  When one of them absolutely butchered "I want to go to the disco," I laughed and said "Where are you guys from?"  Turns out they were a group of bicyclists from Alabama, who were taking a bike tour through the Sierra Nevadas.  One of the guys in the group was a former navy guy, previously stationed in Spain, whose wife was Spanish and he led the group of bikers.  He also owned a bike shop in Alabama.  We became fast friends with the 'Bama Boys and agreed to meet the next day in the city of Granada for a group dinner. By the way, you should know that they weren't sure we were Americans because we were so quiet.  We get that a lot and consider it a compliment. 

So the next day, we had dinner and we all decided to start with gazpacho, which is pretty much the national soup of Spain.  Made up of fresh tomatoes, peppers, onions and garlic plus a few other key ingredients, it is served cold (or room temperature) and is delicious. I could eat that all day, every day in the summer.

Well, one of the guys in the 'Bama Boys was not familiar with gazpacho and when his soup was served, he took a bite and then exclaimed in his best southern accent "This soup is cold!"

I want you to know that we could have absolutely split our sides open laughing but we did not and just explained that it was meant to be served that way.  He remained skeptical whereas the rest of us polished off our portions, craving more.

And so, dear reader, that is how serving scallops and gazpacho made prefect sense to honor the tour!  Had I been thinking though, I should have made something Italian or Sicilian as the 2014 winner, Vincenzo Nibali, hails from those countries (born in Sicily, went to Italy to train).  Maybe next year.

And as per usual and customary, Andy is sad the tour is over although I don't think this year's withdrawal will be that bad, considering how we were on vacation for part of it (and on news blackout at our hotel.  I must write to them and tell them that they need a sports channel for these key events.)  This summer's weather has not been the greatest for biking around these parts but he's managed to get in some long rides and has a very long ride scheduled this coming weekend.  The landscape in southern Minnesota (outside Rochester, MN) is not exactly France or Spain (or England, where part of this year's tour took place) but it will have to do. 

A la prochain!  (Until next time)

Salade De Coquilles Saint-Jacques – serves 4 as a first course

1 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 large clove garlic, thinly sliced

Pinch of cayenne pepper

¼ tsp sugar

1 bay leaf

¼ tsp crushed coriander seeds

½ cup dry white wine

½ cup chicken stock, preferably homemade

1 small turnip, peeled and cut into ¼-in dice

½ red bell pepper, seeded and cut into ¼-in dice

½ small zucchini, skin and outside flesh only, cut into ¼-in dice

2 tsp hazelnut oil

12 scallops

Salt

Garden cress, to garnish

Ann's Note:  I couldn't find hazelnut oil without driving all over town but I did have some walnut oil on hand so I used that. 

Heat the olive oil in a small saucepan.  Add the onion and sauté it until translucent, 2-3 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook it until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Stir in the cayenne, sugar, bay leaf, coriander, white wine, and stock.  Bring just to a boil then reduce the heat, cover, and simmer this court bouillon gently for 10 minutes.

Strain the court-bouillon and return it to the pan.  Add the diced turnip and a little salt and cook gently, covered, for 10-12 minutes.  Add the diced bell pepper and zucchini and continue cooking until the court-bouillon reduces to a light glaze, 5-7 minutes longer.  The vegetables should still be slightly crunchy.

Remove from the heat and let cool to lukewarm, then stir in the hazelnut oil.  Taste for seasoning, adding more salt, cayenne, or hazelnut oil until the sauce is as pungent as you like.  (The mixture should be slightly less seasoned than for traditional vegetables a la grecque.)  Keep warm.

Set a nonstick frying pan over moderate heat.  When the pan is hot, add the scallops and cook then, turning once, until they are nearly opaque throughout, 2-3 minutes.

To serve, arrange 3 scallops on each plate.  Spoon some of the tepid vegetable mixture around the scallops.  Scatter cress sparingly over the vegetables and serve immediately.

Ann's Note:  I substituted butter lettuce for the cress.  My grocery store changed ownership recently and man, they about eliminated anything interesting in the produce department so cress was off the table.  As it was, the new cashier was sadly lacking in vegetable knowledge.  She asked "What's this?" while ringing up my turnip, zucchini and butter lettuce.  Had she inquired about my tomatoes, I would have caused an incident and there would have been cleanup at register 12!

Gazpacho – Serves 4

1 ½ pound beefsteak tomatoes

½ Spanish onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 slices firm white bread, crusts removed, broken into pieces

10 fl oz (1 ¼ cups) tomato juice

3 tablespoons virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons sherry vinegar

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

About 8 ice cubes, to serve

Accompaniments

1 diced small red pepper, 1 diced small green pepper, 1 diced small onion, 1 chopped hard-boiled egg and croutons.

Peel, seed and chop the tomatoes.  Put in a food processor or blender with remaining soup ingredients, except ice cubes.  Mix until smooth.  Pour soup through a nylon sieve, pressing down well on contents of sieve.  If necessary, thin soup with cold water then chill well.  If you want more texture to your soup, omit the nylon sieve process.

To serve, pour soup into cold soup bowls, add ice cubs and then serve with accompaniments if desired.

"Andre Simon's French Cook Book" & "French Menus for Parties" - a Bastille Day Celebration - Chicken Marengo and Tomatoes Provencale

Date I made these recipes:  July 14, 2013 (Bastille Day)

Andre Simon’s French Cook Book, New Edition Revised by Crosby Gaige

Published by:  Little, Brown and Company

© 1948; 1938

Recipe:  Chicken Marengo – p. 42-43

French Menus for Parties by the Chamberlains – recipes by Narcisse Chamberlain (recipes by Narcissa Chamberlain; photographs by Samuel Chamberlain)

Published by:  Hastings House

© 1968

Recipe:  Tomatoes Provencale – p. 40

The month of July is just so much fun with parties and events galore!  First we have the 4^th of July, America’s Independence Day, then we have Bastille Day, France’s version of our Independence Day and for three weeks in a row, we have the Tour de France, the great bicycle race that brings bicyclists through the French countryside and French mountaintops, ending this coming Sunday, July 21, in Paris on the Champs-Elysees. 

Since I missed out on celebrating the 4^th of July with appropriate 4^th of July food (I was so busy that week that the day came and went), I was determined to make something for Bastille Day and so I did in the form of Chicken Marengo and Tomatoes Provencale (Tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, parsley, bread crumbs).  C’est tres bon! (It’s very good.)

According to Andre Simon’s French Cook Book, Chicken Marengo was “supposedly invented by a desperate chef in the field the night before the battle of Marengo for his hungry boss, Napoleon.”  Since I am not up on my French history or Napoleon (the man or the delicious French dessert), I did an internet search and discovered that the Battle of Marengo was fought on June 14, 1800 between France (under Napoleon) and Austria (although the battle was fought in Piedmont, Italy).  The Austrians lost that battle but went on to become a mean competitor against France where it counts the most – the pastry department. I mean come on, Austrian sachertorte anyone?

Although there were plenty of desserts in both of these cookbooks, I went with my standard selections of main and side dishes because with the weather heating up, turning on my oven to bake anything was out of the question.  Out of the two dishes, Chicken Marengo and Tomatoes Provencale, my favorite was actually the tomatoes, possibly because there were fewer steps involved but also because it was more flavorful than the chicken.  The chicken dish was okay but I’ve said this before:  most chicken no longer has any flavor.  Seriously, I bought two large chicken breasts from Whole Foods, known for all their organic and farm-fresh items and they were just bland; if not for the sauce, I would have been crying.  Consider this:  Chef Andre Simon was born in 1877 and died in 1970 (I don’t know why it was so shocking to see that 1970 date but it was) when people were definitely in a “grow your own” phase and I am willing to bet that his chicken tasted like chicken should when he was cooking. 

Chef Andre’s version of Chicken Marengo is fairly simplistic compared to others I’ve seen but simple is a good thing.  I liked his addition of some white wine and brandy although in all likelihood, the alcohol burned off in the cooking.  Bummer, that (so be sure to supplement the recipe with a lovely glass of wine).  And as is typical of this time, recipes and ingredients are included in the narrative which makes reading them a challenge – for example, we get a bit of the history and then in the middle of the paragraph, the text reads “Buy a pair of broilers…”  Okay, then—good thing I didn’t get too invested in reading about Napoleon and his battle!

And then we have the Chamberlains – Narcisse (author), Narcissa (mom and recipe developer) and Samuel (dad and photographer) who spent years writing and editing cookbooks and food articles as well as photographing them. Their names might be familiar to cookbook aficionados as Narcissa and Samuel authored the Clementine in the Kitchen, published in 1943.  The Chamberlain family lived in France for many years and traveled much of Europe before heading back to the states in 1943 so Sam could teach at M.I.T.  Daughter Narcisse enjoyed an illustrious career as a book editor before passing away in 2008 at age 83. 

Now, I want to note that whenever I read about this type of family, the type that can just up and move to Paris and live there and travel all of Europe, I get ever-so-slightly jealous because how fabulous, right?  Talk about a cocktail conversation starter:  “Yes, I grew up in Paris…you?” But then I have to stop and remind myself that I was one lucky gal growing up, traveling most of the United States and a good portion of Canada before I turned 18.  When my parents did road trips, they did ROAD TRIPS.  We’d take on a slew of states at a time as we winged our way from Michigan to Florida or Michigan to California and our annual trips to visit grandma in New Jersey sometimes led us through Canada, just for a change of scenery. 

Today’s youth on the other hand, is more accustomed to airplane travel and seem to have bypassed visiting most states for the opportunity to go to Europe, something I didn’t do until I was almost 30. When I did land on French soil, I spent some time in Paris before heading off with a friend to Provence and the French Riviera and was quite pleased to see that the photos that I took then look very similar to the ones taken by Samuel Chamberlain 20 years earlier.  There’s progress and then there’s preservation, something the French seem to take very seriously.

As to the recipes, although every culture upgrades its food to modern times, I am fairly certain that most French dishes – at least the staples like Boeuf Bourguignon - remained the same between then and now. Europeans have long embraced the concept of “farm to table, buying food only when needed and only if absolutely fresh.  If anything, my guess is that I’d likely have found far better tomatoes, used in the Tomatoes Provencale recipe, in France than in the U.S. where we have often sucked the taste right out of our animals and produce.   But one works with what one has and what “one” had wasn’t bad.  As expected, the chicken tasted more flavorful after it sat a day and although the tomatoes could have been a bit riper, they still tasted pretty good.  So there you go – some history, some recipes, and some thoughts on protein and produce to boot!  Bon appétit everyone!

Chicken Marengo (serving size not indicated but you’ll be using 2 broilers weighing 2.5 pound each – that’s a lot of chicken!)

5 pounds chicken (broilers recommended)

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 shallots (Ann’s Note:  the recipe doesn’t say what to do with them but I’d go with “mince” – same with the garlic.  I diced the tomatoes into small pieces)

1 clove garlic

1 ½ cups sliced mushrooms

6 medium-size tomatoes

½ cup dry white wine

1 tablespoon brandy

If necessary, cut up your chicken into pieces and fry them in olive oil until lightly colored, turning so all sides are done evenly.  Lower the flame and cover for a scant 10 minutes; then remove the chicken from the oil.  Put in its place the shallot, garlic, mushrooms and tomatoes.  (See my note above.)  Let these ingredients cook in the oil till the mushrooms are done.  Add the white wine and brandy and blend till the liquid is reduced about a third; then return the chicken, cover, and let cook gently for perhaps 15 minutes, till you are sure the chicken is completely tender.  Serve in the sauce.

Tomatoes Provencale – Serves 6

6 small ripe tomatoes (cut in half, seeded, seasoned with salt and pepper)

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

Chopped parsley (generous amount)

3 tablespoons coarse bread crumbs.

Cut the tomatoes in halves, shake out the seeds, and season tomatoes with salt and pepper.  In a large skillet cook them lightly on both sides in 4 tablespoons of hot olive oil.  Add 2 minced cloves of garlic and cook the tomatoes another 2 or 3 minutes.  Remove them to a heated platter and sprinkle them with plenty of chopped parsley.  Add 3 tablespoons of coarse bread crumbs to the juices remaining in the skillet, sauté them for a minute or two until they are brown and sprinkle them over the tomatoes.  (Ann’s Note:  I needed to add a bit more olive oil to the skillet to crisp the bread crumbs.)

"Cooking in a Castle" - [Tour de France Ride] Ratatouille

Date I made this recipe:  July 22, 2012 (The end of the Tour de France)

Cooking in a Castle – The Royal Recipes of France by William I. Kaufman

Published by:  Bonanza Books

© 1965

Recipe:  [Ride] Ratatouille – p. 118

Well, today marks the end of Le Tour de France 2012 and thank goodness for that!  Even my husband, the most avid fan there is, was breathing a sigh of relief.  A three-week bicycle race is just a little much—I mean all the spills, chills and excitement lead to exhaustion and we’re just arm-chair spectators!  Can you imagine actually biking the thing?  I cannot.

Biking, and well, actually, most outdoor sports are not my thing.  When I was a kid, my bike was a one-speed (me!) Schwinn.  But my hubby has taken to bike riding like a duck takes to water and so every year, without fail, we watch…and watch…and watch.

This year’s Tour winner was Bradley Wiggins from Britain.  I feel like I’m a game show announcer when I say that “this is Bradley’s first tour win and Britain’s’ first win since the dawn of time”…or the first year of Le Tour – whichever comes first.  But poor Bradley—every time the British announcers talked about “Bradley Wiggins,” I couldn’t help but have myself an Eliza Doolittle moment from My Fair Lady and sing “Just you wait, Bradley Wiggins, just you wait.”  I’m glad I have a patient husband.

So Bradley won and there was much British rejoicing…in that most understated way they have.  Ahem.  There were also loud cheers for the man known as “The Manx Missile” – Mark Cavendish, another Brit who charged ahead in the last seconds of the last stage of the Tour – Le Champs-Elysees, - to win that stage.  A few days earlier, Mark came up out of no where to sprint to the finish line, causing one of the front runners to wave a hand in disgust with an expression of “Aw, crap, not HIM again!” on his face. I think that was my favorite moment of Le Tour.

Any who, as always I do learn a lot of things about the Tour from watching the stages and talking to Andy, my personal guide to all things “Tour.”  So to start, there are 20 stages to the tour, some of which go through the mountains, some of which are flat (and suited for sprinters) and some of which are time trials.  The last stage, stage 20, is a circle tour of Le Champs-Elysees in Paris.  Since this is the last stage, most riders are taking it easy, hoping not to crash and many of them drink champagne on their final laps out on the road, although once they cross the Champs, it’s all business, all the time and the champagne goes away. .  I could be all about biking if I could sip champagne while riding.

So, bear with me as I try to explain the complexities of this sport:  each stage has a winner in the sprinter category (green jersey) and, if applicable, the King of the Mountain (white and red polka dot jersey).  The “best” young rider jersey (white) is awarded to a rider under 26 years old based on the lowest combined times for all stages.  This year’s white jersey went to American Tejay van Garderen.  The coveted yellow jersey, signifying the tour’s overall leader is also awarded to the person with the lowest combined times regardless of age.  This year’s winner of the yellow jersey and therefore the Tour was the aforementioned Bradley Wiggins.

Now then – complicating things just a bit is a group of riders called the “peloton.”   The peloton is a group of riders who all end up crossing the finish line more or less together.  Sometimes the overall tour leader (yellow jersey) rides with the peloton, sometimes not.  But anyway, the most important thing you should know is that the riders in the peloton are all awarded the same finish time.  So if Bradley Wiggins, for example, didn’t speed across the finish line first but ended up in the peloton (usually less than a minute behind the stage winner), then he and everyone else gets awarded the same finish time and therefore the same number of points.  So—clear as French mud, right?  It has only taken me I don’t know how many Tours to figure this all out – barely.  I’m now at the point where I can identify some of the riders so I consider myself quite the expert! 

Besides watching the cyclists, the high entertainment of this three-week event is watching and listening to race announcer, Phil Ligett.  Phil is from England and like most English residents their pronunciation of different words has me in stitches.  Phil, for example, absolutely butchered one of the riders first names, Luis (pronounced lew-eeees) by calling him Louis (Lew-is).  No.  No in whatever language you want – no.  But time and time again, there was Phil with his “Lewis.”  There was also a Swiss rider with an Italian last name that he mauled each and every time he said it.  But still in all, I love Phil.  There’s just something about him that’s just adorable.  By the way, the one year he talked about foods bikers eat and used the British pronunciation of “banan-er” for banana had me doubled over laughing. I mean, I’m sorry, but does anyone see an “er” in that word?

Okay, so the riders were off and running first through Belgium and then hither and yon through France and as you might expect, they rode by (in a burning hurry) many French castles.  And this, children, is how I tied everything in this blog together!

Cooking in a Castle – The Royal Recipes of France – is a new acquisition for me.  I bought it for pennies on the dollar at the Bloomington Crime Prevention Association mega book sale in June.  I just like books that seem interesting and of course, are inexpensive as well.

The first part of this book consists of French recipes that were French royalty favorites while the second part of this book includes chateau photos and even has a map showing where they all are with a bit of history about each one.  Add a bit about French wines (well, bien sur!) and notes for tourists about each castle and voila, you are ready to roll. (That said, my husband and I are jaded travelers and to us, if you’ve seen one chateau, you’ve seen them all.  But don’t let us stop you.)

Recipes in this book ranged from lobster (tres, tres cher) to ragout of duck to simple strawberries (with liqueur, naturellement!).  Since it is still hotter than Hades in Minneapolis, I went with a very simple but delicious ratatouille. 

I was first introduced to ratatouille by my French friend, Edith (pronounced “Ay-deet”).  She and her grandmother made it for me and some friends when they visited me many years ago, and then when I went to Provence to visit them, I just had to have some more.  I’ve seen various and sundry vegetables used in ratatouille, like zucchini and mushrooms but I stuck to the book’s recipe with one exception:  I cut the vegetables into cubes instead of slicing them as directed as that is what I am used to.  Flavor-wise, I doubt it made one bit of difference.

As the recipe says, ratatouille is one of those great dishes that can be eaten hot or cold and I’ve had it both ways.  This was super-simple to make and great to eat.  The next day, I got creative and used it as a pasta sauce and it was tres bon!  (As an aside, I can’t help but think of a Steve Martin comedy routine from years ago – “You Naïve Americans” - where he talked about visiting Paris and it went something like this:  “[The French word for] eggs is ouefs.  Butter is buerre.  It’s like those French have a word for everything!”)

And that concludes Le Tour de France 2012:  coming up in mere days – the 2012 Olympics.  So move over honey, and hand me the remote because there’s swimming to watch!

A bientot, France!!

Ratatouille – yields 12 servings

Olive oil

2 pounds eggplant, peeled and sliced

1 pound squash, peeled and sliced

1 pound green pepper, sliced

2 pounds tomatoes, quartered but not peeled

4 or 5 garlic cloves, crushed

2 onions, sliced

1 large bouquet garni (parsley, thyme, tarragon, celery, bay leaf)

1 teaspoon tarragon, chopped

Salt and pepper

Saute lightly in olive oil the eggplant, squash, and green pepper in deep saucepan.  Add tomatoes, garlic, bouquet garni, and tarragon.  Cover.  Simmer over low heat for one hour.  Serve hot.  In the summer it can be served cold.

Ann’s Note:  I didn’t make a bouquet garni (i.e. all spices tied up in cheesecloth) but threw in a handful of parsley, thyme, tarragon and two small bay leafs; I was also out of celery so no celery.  The flavors were fine and actually enhanced the ratatouille.