Week two and here is another wonderful selection from my bookcases of cookbooks. Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook. If you don't have this book then you need to get it right away. Besides it being by one of my favorite, Anthony Bourdain and yes I have a not so secret crush on him. What can I say, all girls love the "bad boy" is a great writer and storyteller. This is the kind of cookbook that you can sit in bed and read. Page after page of the witty remarks of Mr Bourdain along with some wonderful and classic French dishes.
My favorites are:
Escargot, I know that it scares some people, but as Anthony would say "get the f*&K over it" (see he is a bad boy) They are wonderful little packages of goodness soaked in butter, garlic and parsley. All you need is a tiny little fork a very crunchy baguette and a napkin to get the buttery goodness that will roll down your chin. I have made Anthony's recipe many times and it can not be beat!
Salade Nicoise.... Quite possibly my favorite meal ever! Haricot Verts, red potatoes, anchovies, tomatoes, eggs, lettuce and tuna. The tuna you want to use is the best canned tuna packed in Olive oil, that is the traditional French way of doing it. But if you want to use a lovely fresh piece of tuna just lightly seared, I won't tell anybody.
Moules Marinieres, mussels are oh so very French and this recipe is simple and wonderful. Serve them with some pomme frites and some crusty bread and you have a wonderful yet simple dinner
Onglet Gascon, or Hanger steaks with beef marrow and white wine. Anthony says " Bone marrow is one of God's great gifts to serious eaters" You just need to ask your butcher at your local grocery store for some and then make this steak and enjoy!
There is a chapter on the "Big French Classics" including Boeuf bourguignon, coq au vin, pot-au-feu, bouillabaisse and cassoulet all wonderful and not so hard to make. These French classics should be made by everybody at least once. Don't be intimated, they aren't that hard, but oh so impressive.
But the last and maybe the best recipe in the whole book is the Les Halles fries. These are the best fries you will ever make. It is a method that four steps, Prep, Blanch, Fry and Serve. The BEST ever!!! Anthony says: "There were surely few lowlier, more stupid moments in American history than when a few boobish media whores started talking about changing the names of the French fries to "freedom fries" First of all, the French call them Frites- and could hardly care less what we call them. I'm sure that, if anything, they were amused at the mini-controversy, as it seemed to confirm their worst assumptions about the savage and "uncultured" Americans" Amen Anthony, I agree...
