Where Julia Lived And Cooked

Imagine living where Julia Child lived,That is any chef's and foodie's dream come true and it did for New York Times Food contributor, Julia Moskin. She spent time at La Pitchoune, Child's home in the south of France. What a great holiday, first with fabulous inspiration and second with a breathtaking countryside.,bursting with some of the best foods in the world.

How did Ms. Moskin score such a fantastic vacation? It happened through airbnb. The current owners put the Provencale farmhouse on the popular site.It was well worth it, especially to those who love and worship the famed chef. Many original artifacts are still there. There is still the plastic bin labelled "ail echlotes"for garlic and shallots.There are her cooking knives, sharp carbon steeled ones still in the wooden block that her husband Paul carved.Outside the house , though, very few traces of her remain. For all her celebrity , Chef Child was not a big thing in France,  Her great nephew Alex Prud'homme  confirmed this, with saying that southern France is notoriously laid back, not caring who she was. .Some locals do remember her, such as one of the elder butchers in a local butchery, even doing an imitation of her along with the chef , Mimi Brothier at Les Arcades in  Biot, France. Les Arcades was her favorite eatery, starting out as a canteen for local artists.Ms. Moskin ate here too, in following the chef's trail, enjoying pan crisped sardines,roasted peppers and a bowl of soupe au pistou,Provencale vegetable soup.

Of course, being in Julia Child's kitchen means cooking in it too. Ms. Moskind did just that , along with picking basil and thyme from the garden and buying from hat's left of small family owned shops (the area has been inundated with the big box national markets) The dishes she made were a Provencale white wine beef daube and Provencale potato gratin.The first will make a wonderful fall dinner. It's boneless  stewing beef marinated in olive oil and Cognac. A melange of vegetables are cooked separately. The veggies used are onions carrots and mushrooms, Later , they and the meat are combined along with tomatoes, white wine, bouquet garni and whole peppercorns. The entire dish is cooked for three to four hours  until the meat is ultra tender. Orange zest is added at the end and then the daube can be poured over pasta or rice. The other is a gratin but made with a true Provencale ingredient, anchovies. Tomatoes and onions, again the pillars of southern French cooking, are also used, being cooked together in a kind of marmalade to spread on one layer of tomatoes. The next layer is spread with the fish, pounded with olive oil to form a loose paste. Grated Gruyere or Parmesan - Reggiano is sprinkled on the last layer to give it a nice, crispy finish.

Living in Julia Child's Provence house is a  chef's and foodie's dream come true. It was an inspiration to Ms. Moskin as she created the chef's famed dishes. It was the ideal vacation, definitely full of flavor  and memories.

Bouillabaisse A Different Kind of Seafood Dish

August has two great harvests right now - seafood and vegetables. Combine them together to create a Southern French classic bouillabaisse. This rich , briny soup is a perfect dish to make for a late August supper or party. It has the appeal of both freshly caught fish and crustaceans along with just picked produce.Not only that , bouillabaisse can be tailored to everyone's tastes.

This classic dish originated in Provence and is comprised of actually two dishes. The first is the actual seafood itself and true Marseillaise one will have conger eel, sea robin, John Dory, bream along with monkfish and sea urchins. The fish would be washed in seawater and then added to a mix of vegetables and spices. The second part is the rouille which is an egg yolk beaten with olive oil,garlic and saffron and served with the fish and broth.It's smeared on waiting crusty hunk of French bread and then the bouillabaisse is poured over it.

For an American style bouillabaisse, use mussels, sea bass and shrimp. You can also throw in lobster if you wan t or oysters for some variation. Use your garden harvest of tomatoes and leeks along with potatoes for the vegetable part. Garlic and saffron are the biggest must haves for this because they represent the flavors of Southern France. You can also use bouquet garni for taste as well. Most recipes from Julia Child to the Food Channel all include the rouille which is again just a simple mix of egg yolk, olive oil and lemon juice. Some recipes call for chili peppers or parsley to give it more flavor. What you want to do with it is up to your tastes. Once made smear on slices of crusty French baguettes, then place the bread in the bowls. Pour the soup over it to cook the rouille and to have it mix with the seafood.

This is the time to enjoy August's twin harvests of seafood and veggies. Their flavors alone are amazing, together they're perfect together, complementing each other perfectly.Why not combine them in this French classic sure to be a crowd pleaser.

The Famed Languedoc Region

French regional food is always the best. It reflects the people and their centuries year old recipes. it also represents the land and waters that fresh veggies, organic meat and newly caught seafood come from. This is certainly true in France's Languedoc area, a beautiful section located on the Mediterranean.

Languedoc has always stood in the shadow of its' more famous neighbor, Provence. Foodies go mad for Provencale cooking,from its' bouillabaisse to its' saffron infused sauces. However Languedoc, the region to Provence's east also has some amazing dishes as well. The most famous is cassoulet, that delicious melange of duck and pork, beans and tomatoes. Wild boar is another popular dish being served in the more mountainous and sometimes chillier areas of the region. Confit du canard is another well loved recipe using duck legs poached in their own fat. Truffles also abound here.as so lives. The Langdociennes make a tapanade using olives form their
hillsides. Seafood is also popular and a fish stew . bourride,is made with aioli , the garlicky mayonnaise.

The region also has some amazing orchards. Cherries, apricots and peaches are in abundance, here thanks to the temperate climate. Clafoutis is a thick buttery flan covering dark sweet cherries. 9thanks to the Spanish influence on the regions' most western border) . Almonds figure big here too,. although most Langdociennes would end their dinners with some fruit and possible blue cheese . Blue cheese originate here and they region is proud of it. France's famed lavender honey is also made in this region and is used in creating sweet, floral infused pastries.

Languedoc is every foodie and gourmet;s destination. it is a quieter version of Provence, Yet it's cuisine packs a punch. It has given France andthe world some of th e best known dishes from cassoulet to clafoutis.

French Food Heaven On Earth

November always gets me to think about Paris. I guess it;s the damp, chill or the rainy Manhattan streetsthat reminds me of autumn in the City of Lights. It also spurs me to crave French food, There is nothing like it. Its' complexity and simplicity combined, lush tastes with simple ingredients. It is perfection.

French cooking is an off shoot the Northern Italian (hence the reason why it;s so good) Catherine De Medici brought her recipes with her when she married Henri II) I imagine regular court cuisine got a good infusion of butter delicate spices and new cooking methods. These are even followed to this day. The provences also contributed with crepes from Normandy and bouillabaisse from Provence along with good ragouts from almost every Provence.

French pastry in itself is sheer heaven. even though croissants are well overdone here now in the States there's nothing like a true French one. Bite into those flaky buttery layers and experience pure joy. A well done chocolate croissant is even better. The mille feus which are layers of flaky pastry held together by a creme bavarois are also a culinary feat. Macaroons now are becoming the next big dessert trend and the french are making them in flavors such as tangerine and strawberry.

Nothing beats French cuisine as the ultimate foodie fantasy. This is the cuisine gastronomique, perfection on a plate.

Voici - Toute La France Pour Le Jour De La Bastille

Today is Bastille Day French pastries, I thought I'd dedicate the entire entry to the various foods of France. The French landscape is a wide and varied one. It has the wine region in the Southwest while the Southeast has the Alps and fertile fields of the Mediterranean basin. The North is a mixture of land and sea, evident in their various dishes. French cooking is the most varied, owing to the climate and landscape.


Provence provides France with the rich cooking of the local farms and a bounty rich sea, Here you can find olives, fish, tomatoes and onion. There's nothing like a briny, saffron infused bouillabaisse with fresh made, crusty bread. Another treat is pissaladerie. which is a Provencale pizza made with ground olives on toasted bread. Travel a bit north and you get the Alpine cooking, such as the Swiss influenced fondue and raclette . On the other side of southern France there is the Burgundy wine region where the best wines and champagnes are made. Here is also good cuisine, escargots, snails drenched in butter and parsley and the famed jambon persille ham cured with again parlsey. Burgundy is also known for its' rich potage bourguignonne, a vegetable soup flavored with bits of bacon and ham.

Northern France is loaded with history and a history of good food as well. It is here that the famous sea salt, sel du St. Michel is mined in beds near the Monastery of St. Michel in the English Channel. In neighboring Brittany crepes , a true symbol of French cuisine, have been made for centuries and originated there. There are gallettes or crepe stands all through the towns of the region. Brittany is also known for its' mussel or moules, steamed in white wine. Then there's the part of France that borders Germany in Alsace. The region is a mix of Gallic and Germanic foods.

France - it's not just the cultural capital of the world. It's also the culinary one too. Celebrate it . Discover the wonders of French cuisine aujourd 'hui.

Provence - Foodie Heaven

There is something about the southeastern corner of France that melts everyone. For artists it's the fields where Van Gogh once painted, for film buffs it's the Cannes Film Festival, and for foodies it's the amazing dishes. Provencale cuisine is simple but full of complex textures and aromas.The food is a fine marriage of land and sea.

Where is Provence exactly? It's at the very tip of the French nation, encompassing the small kingdom of Monaco in the east to Arles and Avignon in the west. It has both the Maritime and the High Provence Alps as well as a good sweep of the Mediterranean on it's southernmost side. It's here you get a perfect array of seafood, game, and herbs along with vegetables and fruits. The dishes reflect this ,combining different tastes and aromas.

Provencale cooking is rich in seafood. After all this is where bouillabaisse was born, in Marseilles, one of the southern France's biggest port cities. This wonderful saffron perfumed soup first started a simple way to use up local markets catches of the day. Local fishermen would cut up the fish , and boil it in seawater infused with local herbs. The mixture was cooked over coals on the beach. It evolved into one of the most famous dishes of French Mediterranean cuisine. The best place to have it is in Marseilles or Cap d'Antibes. Unfortunately ,unless you're making it yourself, restaurant bouillabaisse can be overly fishy or overly herbed. It has to have the right mix of both tobe moutherwatering and memorable.

Vegetables and fruit play an important part of Provencale cooking. Tomatoes abound on in therugged countryside and they're used regularly. One of my favorite recipes is for stuffed tomatoes here tomatoes are stuffed with bread crumbs and garlic and then fried.The world known ratatouille, another flavorful Provencale dish , combines them with eggplant and onions. This is a great dish to make when you have company because it's not only filling but easy to make for crowds. Fennel plays an important part in the cuisine. There's nothing like a cooling salad made with fresh stalks. Fruits are also a must in any Provence kitchen. Apricots are the biggest product and there are many recipes with them. The Provencales also make clafoutis or black cherry pudding because the fruit abounds there.Another big crop, figs grow on many farms in amongst the Maritime Alp. Every housewife and cook has many different recipes for poached and stuffed ones.

Provence - it's an inspirational Eden for artists and those who love the art of cooking. It's a foodie's paradise too, with it's rich flavors and unique, but earthy dishes.


Ratatouille (my Mom's recipe)

3 large tomatoes
1 large onion,
1 large pepper
1 zucchini
2 table spoons olive oil
1 clove garlic , minced.
sea salt and coarsely ground pepper

Cut and cube vegetables.Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Add vegetables, garlic, salt and pepper and stirring occasionally. Keep over low heat until vegetables are cooked. Cover to lightly steam for one or two minutes.

Serves four. Serve with a crusty warm bagettes.