French food has the aura, the reputation, the weight of tradition to intimidate just about anyone. That’s why it is such an unexpected pleasure when a French cookbook arrives that is accessible and friendly. When three arrive, that’s reason enough to drop everything and run to the kitchen tout de suite.
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The second book is the smartly titled “Nobody Does It Better: Why French Home Cooking Is Still the Best in the World” by Trish Deseine (Kyle Books, 2007). An Irish woman living and working in France, Deseine has compiled a glorious celebration of the home cooking of her adopted country. Her book is full of the kinds of recipes that make you hungry while you read them, from hearty onion soup to steak frites and lemon tart.
The third is “Clotilde’s Edible Adventures in Paris” by Clotilde Dusoulier (Broadway Books, 2008), the young woman who wowed the food world with her blog (www.chocolatandzucchini.com) and a book of the same name. This new volume is more of a guidebook than a cookbook, but it’s a very useful guidebook, the kind that tells the neophyte how to negotiate the cheese course, or what to expect at a Parisian chocolate shop (“jewelry-store ambience,” “snooty shopkeepers” and “gloved attendants”). The author, however, is as unsnooty as they come, and she throws in a few recipes to keep readers feeling satisfied.
The recipes below are from these three books, and they have that ineffable something about them — that “je ne sais quoi” — that will please you and your guests.
APPLES IN STOCKING CAPS
4 baking apples
8 ounces mixed dried fruit and nuts (such as dates, raisins, almonds or hazelnuts)
juice of 1 orange
6 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons butter
For the meringue:
2 egg whites
6 tablespoons sugar
For serving:
chocolate sauce or
warmed honey or
warmed caramel sauce (3/4 cup sugar, heated and stirred until liquid and browned, and drizzled over apples)
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Core the apples using a sharp paring knife to carve out a large-ish hole in each; be careful not to cut through the bottom. Place the apples in an attractive oven dish. Mix together the fruit, nuts and orange juice, and use this mixture to stuff the apples. Mix the sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle each apple. Place 1 tablespoon of butter on each apple. Pour a drop of water into the dish, and bake for just under an hour, basting the apples occasionally with their own juices.
When the apples are almost done, make the meringue: In a very clean bowl, beat the egg whites and 3 tablespoons of the sugar into stiff peaks. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons sugar, and beat in. Cover the apple tops in this meringue using a spatula; the idea is to create a peaked “cap.” Return to the oven for 5 minutes, or until the meringue has browned slightly. Keep a close eye so they do not burn.
Serve lukewarm or cold, with chocolate sauce, honey or caramel.
Yield: 4 servings
Recipe from “Decadent Desserts: Recipes from Chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte” by Countess Cristina de Vogue (Flammarion, 2008).
LEMON TART
For the dough:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1/3 cup salted butter, chilled and cut up
For the filling:
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
zest and juice of 3 lemons
1/3 cup butter
Sift the flour into a mixing bowl, and stir in the sugar. Add the egg yolk; then, little by little with your fingers, rub in the cut butter pieces until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Put into an 8-1/2-inch tart pan, and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Put the egg yolks and sugar in a saucepan, and beat with a whisk or electric mixer until the mixture whitens. Add the lemon zest and juice. Put the saucepan over low heat, and stir gently. Add the butter a little at a time, continuing to stir. When the mixture has thickened, pour it into the chilled tart shell, and bake in the oven for 20 minutes, or until the filling forms a golden crust. Serve slightly warm.
Yield: about 8 servings
Recipe from “Nobody Does It Better” by Trish Deseine (Kyle Books, 2007)
SUGAR PUFFS
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup water
1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
4 large eggs, at room temperature
pearl sugar for sprinkling (see Cook’s note)
Cook’s note: Pearl sugar is available where cake-decorating supplies are sold or online. If you can’t find it, crush sugar cubes in a sturdy food-storage bag using a rolling pin, or use a coarse sugar such as Demerara or turbinado.
Combine the butter, salt, sugar and water in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Remove from heat. Add the flour all at once, and stir quickly with a wooden spoon until well blended. Return the pan to medium-low heat, and keep stirring until the mixture forms a smooth ball that pulls away from the sides of the pan. Let cool for 3 minutes. Add the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes, or up to a day.
Preheat the oven to 400 F, and line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Remove the batter from the fridge, and use 2 teaspoons to form small balls of batter, about the size of walnuts. Place them on the prepared sheet, leaving an inch of space between them. Sprinkle with the pearl sugar.
Bake for 20 minutes, until puffed and golden (do not open the oven during the first 10 minutes of baking). Turn off the oven, open the door just a crack (you can prop it open with a wooden spoon), and leave in for another 5 minutes to prevent temperature shock, which would cause them to deflate.
Transfer to a rack, and let cool completely before serving. Store any leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature, and reheat for 5 minutes in a 300 F oven to restore the original texture.
Yield: about 40 puffs
Recipe from “Clotilde’s Edible Adventures in Paris” by Clotilde Dusoulier (Broadway Books, 2008)
Marialisa Calta is the author of “Barbarians at the Plate: Taming and Feeding the American Family” (Perigee, 2005). For more information, go to www.marialisacalta.com.
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