Monday, February 19, 2024
Good morning!
… From Paris! Well, this was of course queued up before I left. [I’m not crazy enough to work on vacation unless absolutely necessary.] We are on vacation in one of our favorite cities with the whole family, including my mom and sister, taking advantage of off-season prices and availability to take in as much as we can. Plus, it’s our first time taking the kids. Should we show them where we got engaged under the Eiffel Tower? I think we should!
In the spirit of The City of Light, this week’s newsletter is all about my favorite French and bistro-inspired classics. All you need is a good baguette, une tasse de café (or so the previous 47 days of DuoLingo, hoping to resuscitate my high school French, has suggested), and a not-insignificant amount of good butter and you’ll be set.
À bientôt!
Deb
I’ve written three cookbooks and I’m a tiny bit biased, but I think you’d love them all. Wondering what you might cook from Smitten Kitchen Keepers in the depths of winter? I thought you’d never ask! The soup section is one of my absolute favorites with everything from a perfect weeknight ginger garlic chicken noodle soup, simple black bean chili, winter squash soup with red onion crisp, slow-simmered lentils with kale and goat cheese that you scoop onto grilled bread, cozy chicken and dumplings,
and a creamy tomato chickpea masala I could probably live on if allowed. To finish, I recommend the oatmeal date shortbread, better-than-classic pound cake, and/or toast with chocolate olive oil spread. Were you looking for a list of all the recipes in each of my cookbooks? I’ve added these in a separate page and hope it makes it easier for you to find everything you want to cook.
chocolate raspberry pavlova stack
New! A wobbling centerpiece of a three-tiered chocolate pavlova with crackly edges and pillowy centers, plus an unforgettable raspberry curd, drizzle of chocolate sauce, whipped cream, fresh raspberries, and a dusting of sugar, almost as pretty as what was outside my window this morning. It’s here to generate and distribute decadent joy, so please drop everything to make it, you will have no regrets.
essential french onion soup
Onion soup is one of my favorite foods on earth; it's inexpensive, easy to shop for, and requires no cheffy tricks to make an impossibly good, cozy bowl. Julia Child's books taught me how to make it; real life took it from there.
swiss chard pancakes
Anytime pancakes are one of my favorite things. These thick but crepe-like pancakes take all of 5 minutes to prepare the batter and 15 more to fry up, and are loaded with greens and herbs.
quiche lorraine
I crave a good quiche with a luxe, bronzed finish like clockwork on sleety, chilly days. What sets this Quiche Lorraine apart from classic versions is two decadent additions: a heap of caramelized leeks and a rich tang from sour cream in the filling. With a big green salad and a glass of wine, I cannot think of a better dinner.
french onion tart
A savory dinner tart version of my favorite soup, replete with the sweetly cooked onions, a hint of broth, and the nonnegotiable broiled cheese lid. This is the exact pick-me-up a wintry week needs, don't you think?
moules à la marinière
Favorite easy dinner party or date-night-in meal? Unquestionably this: mussels steamed open in wine, shallots and butter while fries cook in the oven. Add a good baguette, simple green salad and crisp white wine and it's total budget-friendly, unheavy luxury. We really should do this more often.
the best baked spinach
Think spinach gratins must be rich and leaden with cheese, cream and butter? Not when Julia Child shows us the way. Not only does this taste amazing, it's total weekday night fare -- as a side, scooped on toast or topped off with an egg. (Yesss.)
dijon and cognac beef stew
The best beef stew we've ever had. If you've thus far found beef stew kind of bland and uninteresting, if you've been tormented by thin broths, unevenly cooked vegetables, and tough meat, this is just the weekend luxury for you.
coq au vin
It’s not that I should be surprised that a dish of chicken cooked in a sauce of bacon, red wine, beef stock and butter would be outstanding, but I didn’t think my husband would declare it the best chicken dish he’d ever eaten.
perfect apple tarte tatin
A good tarte tatin looks like snug apple cobblestones on top of a rippling puff of flaky pastry. If you’re lucky, the apples will taste like they drank a cup of caramel and then napped in what they couldn’t finish. I could never get it right, so I asked my neighbor, Susan Spungen, an expert tatin-baker, for help. Together, we've created what I hope will be the last apple tarte tatin recipe you'll ever need.
pear and almond tart
If you have a marzipan fanatic in your life, you need to introduce them to frangipane, stat. Made with ground almonds, butter, an egg and a splash of extract or brandy, they’ll think they’ve died and gone to heaven. Adding pears and an unshrinkable tart shell make it into a cozy yet unheavy winter dessert.
paris + a deep, dark salted butter caramel sauce
One of my biggest French obsessions is salted butter caramel. The French always seem to cook their caramels longer, to a dark copper color, none of those golden browns we see here. This is, if you ask me, the secret to great caramel. The lighter colored ones just taste sweet and sticky but the dark ones are nutty and complex with a trace of bitterness. It is amazing what an extra couple minutes of cooking will do. Serve over everything.
valerie's french chocolate cake
My friend makes the most incredible chocolate cake -- just a few basic ingredients, plus whipped egg whites, which give it an airy lift and an almost crackly meringue of a lid; the pot you melt the chocolate in is your bowl; it bakes in 30 minutes -- and I bet she regrets ever giving me the recipe because I couldn't resist fiddling with it: richer and more decadent. I regret nothing.
silky, decadent old-school chocolate mousse
Real deal old-school totally unapologetic (about its cream, eggs, butter, and brandy) authentic chocolate mousse, the way it was always meant to be.
shop my favorites
Ever wonder where I get my cutting boards, paring knives, offset spatulas and more than you see when I cook? I've created a page on Smitten Kitchen with links to some of my favorite kitchen items, the ones I'm asked about the most. I recently added several new favorites I’ve bought in the last year. For each item, I've attempted to provide a range of shopping links so we're not just focusing on one giant retailer.
See you next week!