French Food at Home
Author: Laura Calder
When most people think of French food, they anticipate "complicated to make," "hard-to-find ingredients" or "too fancy." In French Food at Home, Laura Calder shows that great French food doesn't have to be any of that. The French cooking of everyday life is lighthearted, accessible, and suited to modern tastes. It's about creating a meal using easy-to-find local ingredients. And, above all, it's about slowing down and savoring the pleasures of good food, wherever you live.
Whether it's getting weeknight dinners on the table fairly fast (Basil Beef, Pickle Chops, or Carrot Juice Chicken) or leisurely cooking for dining at a slightly slower pace (Lamb Tagine, Holiday Hen, or Fennel Bass), Laura Calder shares recipes that she's created at home in her own French kitchen. Balance these with just the right side dishes (Olive Potatoes, Buttery Two Tomatoes, or Endives with Honey and Golden Raisins). And, for a special meal, bookend main dishes with a first course (Orange Asparagus, Toast Soup, or Beet Stacks) and a dessert (Nutty Figs, Fireplace Camembert, or Coffee Pots).
You'll enjoy reading French Food at Home as much as cooking from it. About her Camembert Salmon, Laura writes, "You're thinking, 'Ugh, she's got to be kidding.' But this is no mental lapse; just because it's strange to the ear doesn't mean it will be to the tongue." Or, for the Lemon Tart of My Dreams: "There are more recipes for lemon tart out there than you can shake a stick at. Some have candied lemon slices afloat on top like so many shipwrecked unicycles; others, for reasons I cannot divine, are hell-bent on involving ground almonds ... But all I want in a lemon tart is the plainestpossible thing: flat, smooth, and puckering with intense lemon flavor."
From apéritifs to desserts, Laura offers recipes ranging from easy to those that need just a little extra effort. From dishes that are ready in minutes to those slow and savory, from traditional to contemporary, French Food at Home lets you bring French food to your home.
The New York Times
The Paris correspondent for Vogue Entertaining and Travel, Calder has delivered a warm, no-nonsense volume of classic recipes (tarragon chicken, potato torte, steak au poivre), nearly all of which are simple to make, even if you don't have the luxury of shopping in big-city food markets. — Dwight Garner
Publishers Weekly
Proving that French cooking can be liberating and accessible, the Paris-based correspondent for Vogue Entertaining and Travel presents more than 100 recipes she developed. Some are inspired by the work of French restaurateurs, and most are easy to prepare. To accompany aperitifs, Calder suggests Frenchified Popcorn flavored with garlic, herbes de Provence and celery salt, or Hot Mussels, which start out like Moules Mariniere and end up being quickly broiled on the half-shell with a dollop of butter, garlic and parsley. Pea Green Soup is nothing more than cooked frozen peas, cream, salt and pepper. An easy dinner is Bacon Cod, fillets topped with lemon slices, bay leaves and thyme sprigs and wrapped with pieces of bacon before being slipped into the oven. Tarragon Chicken is a simplified version of a dish often gussied up by others. On the other hand, Filo Fish in Red Wine Sauce requires a bit of dexterity, and Holiday Hen glorifies a boned guinea hen (Calder supplies deboning instructions). A few of the recipes are off-the-wall, such as Hay Ham, a smoked ham actually simmered in pot with two large wads of fresh hay. Desserts are relatively easy, such as Flamb ed Bananas or Parmesan and Pink Pepper Strawberries, fresh berries wedded to those unusual tastes. Highly engaging headnotes explain each recipe and offer alternative techniques or ingredients. (Feb.) Forecast: This is not a book for those looking to perfect their Gallic expertise, but it will appeal to cooks with a yen to master uncomplicated dishes with a certain French flair. Many of the savory meals are served up with a quite effortless sauce of reduced juices fortified with a dab of butter. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
Calder, the Paris correspondent for Vogue Entertaining and Travel magazine, presents an amusing narrative spliced with more than 100 of her personal recipes to illustrate her premise that French cooking is "a state of mind." Indeed eclectic, her recipe collection includes many simple classics like Endive Salad and Potato Omelets, yet there are also more unusual dishes like Duck on a String, which requires a salted duck breast to be hung in the open air for seven days; and Hay Ham (yes, hay, which Calder says imparts a unique, smoky flavor to the meat). The recipes are written in a casual style, often with less than precise instructions, and they often seem secondary to the author's preceding chatty comments and anecdotes. A better selection is Patricia Wells's The Paris Cookbook, also written from the perspective of an American in Paris, which provides simple, well-written recipes that can be successfully prepared by both experienced and novice home cooks in North American kitchens.-Mary Schlueter, Missouri River Regional Lib., Jefferson City Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Interesting book: The Twelve Teas of Celebration or Linda Collisters Book of Baking
Soup Kitchen
Author: Hugh Buckingham
Few foods rival the feel-good factor of soup, whether a hearty minestrone on a chilly evening, a cooling gazpacho in the heat of summer, or the comforting tomato soup of childhood memory. This rich collection brings together 100 soup recipes from some of Britain's leading chefs and food writers. From Jamie Oliver's Chickpea, Leak and Parmesan Soup, to Rick Stein's Classic Fish Soup with Rouille and Croutons, here are recipes for every mood and meal. And as every culture embraces soup of some kind, the influences at work here are wonderfully varied—Ken Hom's Tomato Ginger Soup, Terence Conran's Borscht, Nobu's Seafood Miso with Chorizo, and Sam and Sam Clark's Chestnut and Chorizo Soup, to name but a few. Soup is surely the ultimate seasonal food, and, reflecting this, the book is organized by time of year, so that ingredients are easy to find and at their full-flavored best.
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