What are you cooking now?

[cloughie]

Inspired by a contemporary take on cassoulet in our local gastropub the other day I looked along the shelves for a recipe to start from, and lit on Elizabeth David, French Provincial Cooking, for the first time in ages good grief! For 8-10 people (!) take 2 lbs haricot beans, 1 lb Toulouse sausages, 2½ lbs pork bladebone or spare rib, 1½ lb shoulder of lamb, 8-10 oz salt pork, onion, garlic, herbs...... Looking through the book as a whole, it’s full of whole geese and hares (hung for 2 days), lashings of butter and cream.....is this anything more than a work of cultural history? You will find this sort of thing in country restaurants in France I daresay, but it’s up to the likes of Rick Stein (other chefs are available) to translate them into something remotely achievable in today’s kitchen, where your life does not revolve around the preparation of food. I realise it was sensational in the England of 1960......

Fortunately lots of easier options on t'internet.

Keith Floyd's French recipes are always worth looking at as is also Patricia Wells Bistro Cooking. There's always a bit of good prep work to a cassoulet but a choice of what meats go in it. In the past I've had some good ones to accompany celebrations of Beaujolais Nouveau!

[french frank]

and lit on Elizabeth David, French Provincial Cooking, for the first time in ages good grief! For 8-10 people (!) take 2 lbs haricot beans, 1 lb Toulouse sausages, 2½ lbs pork bladebone or spare rib, 1½ lb shoulder of lamb, 8-10 oz salt pork, onion, garlic, herbs......

I love her recipe for Daube à l'avignonnaise. Mix of lamb, garlic sausage and haricot beans is not dissimilar.

Today I had fish soup, my recipe. The Coop fish (salmon, sea bass, cod) usually comes in packs of two fillets, so I cook them both and have one hot with vegetables. The second one I toss in my soup. I like it to be bisque coloured, so no green veg: onions, fennel, fresh tomatoes, red or cream pepper (veg pepper), perhaps carrot, perhaps some chopped chillie, seasoning. Add a bit of milk-ish product to improve the colour, toss the flaked cooked fish in at the last minute to heat up. Eat with crusty bread.

[vinteuil]

I looked along the shelves for a recipe to start from, and lit on Elizabeth David, French Provincial Cooking, for the first time in ages good grief! / ... / I realise it was sensational in the England of 1960......
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... my mother was a serious cook, and the meals of my childhood came largely (in all senses) from Elizabeth David's A Book of Mediterranean Food [1950], French Country Cooking [1951], and French Provincial Cooking [1960]. And the memories of those meals, the coq au vin, boeuf bourguignon &c perdure. I think of Mrs Ramsay's boeuf en daube in chapter xvii of To the Lighthouse [1927].


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[HighlandDougie]

If I want to stir things up when having French friends and neighbours for supper (apart from mentioning various local politicians with dubious reputations), introducing food into the conversation is always guaranteed to get them shouting at each other about the perfect recipe for, well, daube, pissaladière, coq au chambertin etc etc etc. Cassoulet, made as below, shut them all up, so, highly recommended:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2014/mar/19/how-to-cook-perfect-cassoulet

Saint Felicity never fails to deliver - her researches into perfect recipes are thorough, amusingly written and, in my experience, deliver the goods every time. I wouldn't ever want to give up on Elizabeth David, Jane Grigson or Richard Olney but tempus transit - and la cuisine française with it.

[teamsaint]

shepherds pie. Mostly veg With a bit of quorn mince.

Yum

[Richard Barrett]

good grief! For 8-10 people (!) take 2 lbs haricot beans, 1 lb Toulouse sausages, 2½ lbs pork bladebone or spare rib, 1½ lb shoulder of lamb, 8-10 oz salt pork, onion, garlic, herbs...

A few friends and I back in the early 90s used to take turns in cooking this one up for each other. It's quite hard to get the consistency right, or at least it was on the occasion when it was my turn - the result had almost the consistency of freshly mixed concrete. It tasted fantastic though.

Oh and happy thanksgiving from freezing Minneapolis to our American contributors!

[teamsaint]

A few friends and I back in the early 90s used to take turns in cooking this one up for each other. It's quite hard to get the consistency right, or at least it was on the occasion when it was my turn - the result had almost the consistency of freshly mixed concrete. It tasted fantastic though.

Oh and happy thanksgiving from freezing Minneapolis to our American contributors!

Sounds great. Minneapolis I mean, not eating something the consistency of freshly mixed concrete.Sounds like a good road trip you have on there , RB.
Has the LA thing been and gone ?

Illogically, I fancy a visit to St Paul, though I have no idea what it is like. Nearest I have come is the St Paul CO website. ( Which is excellent BTW).

Edit...although I have seen the Vikings ( or the Vikes ) play a proper game at Twickenham......

[french frank]

Supper today was fried flageolet beans with diced pancetta served on a bed of pea shoots. With a piece of socca. Same as yesterday (except yesterday I had a glass of water with it and today I had a cup of black coffee). And an orange.

[Richard Barrett]

Sounds great. Minneapolis I mean, not eating something the consistency of freshly mixed concrete.Sounds like a good road trip you have on there , RB. Has the LA thing been and gone?

Yes it has, we arrived in Minneapolis on Sunday and leave tomorrow. I have the impression that Minneapolis (which I visited briefly once before) is quite a cultural centre for an American city of its size. I didn't take in any concerts apart from the ones I was directly involved in (one in each of the twin cities!), but there's plenty going on to be sure.

[french frank]

Yes it has, we arrived in Minneapolis on Sunday and leave tomorrow.

Hope it was a successful visit, Richard.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch: chorizo and chickpea stew, with lots of things in it. It will be lunch tomorrow and supper for most of the coming week. With Coop crusty sourdough. Or rice.

[Beef Oven!]

Hope it was a successful visit, Richard.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch: chorizo and chickpea stew, with lots of things in it. It will be lunch tomorrow and supper for most of the coming week. With Coop crusty sourdough. Or rice.

Don't you eat chips?

[french frank]

Don't you eat chips?

I don't eat potatoes very often, though very occasionally I make an unattractive rösti. Mainly I eat bread, but otherwise pasta or rice depending.

[Beef Oven!]

I don't eat potatoes very often, though very occasionally I make an unattractive rösti. Mainly I eat bread, but otherwise pasta or rice depending.

What counts with rösti is taste, not looks (at least that's what I say given mine always turns out deeply ugly!).

[french frank]

What counts with rösti is taste, not looks (at least that's what I say given mine always turns out deeply ugly!).

Mine tastes ugly too because I'm too idle to parboil the potatoes first. I think I might make it a New Year's Resolution: Parboil My Tatties.

[teamsaint]

Mine tastes ugly too because I'm too idle to parboil the potatoes first. I think I might make it a New Year's Resolution: Parboil My Tatties.

But not if cooking Tortilla Espanola........