Bon anniversaire, ma chère Julia!

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chocolate almond cake, Julia Child, julia child 100, julia child birthday, julia child chocolate almond cake, julia child la reine de saba, julia child turns 100, julia child's 100th birthday, julia child's birthday, julia child's salad nicoise, la reine de saba, La Reine de Saba---the Queen of Sheba Chocolate Almond Cake, salad nicoise

Julia McWilliams Child was born one hundred years ago today.  In my opinion, this should be a national holiday dedicated to the pleasures of the table and our culinary history.  Smith College always celebrates its famous alumna on Julia Child Day, the Thursday before Thanksgiving.  Every dining hall and the campus center features different recipes from Julia.  Some of my fondest college memories are from roaming from one Julia venue to another and another, stuffing myself to the point of gluttony and leaving little appetite for the less exciting Thanksgiving table to follow in a few days (we used to call the span of time from Julia Child Day to Thanksgiving “Fat Week”).

Unfortunately, my work and campaign schedule leaves me little time to devote to doing anything elaborate to celebrate her birthday.  So I shall celebrate by treating myself to her newest biography, “Dearie,” just published by Bob Spitz, and by enjoying some of her good basic everyday recipes like Salad Nicoise, an improvised Peche Clafoutis using peaches instead of cherries, and her favorite chocolate cake.

This is the perfect time of the year for Julia’s favorite main-course salad, Salad Nicoise.  The new potatoes are in season, the green beans are plentiful, and the tomatoes are finally turning red.  I like to use tiny new yellow potatoes that can skinned just by a vigorous brushing and cooked in just a few minutes.  My Mother’s garden is filled with delicious little haricots vertes.  She plants Taverna, Maxibel, and Fortex beans to harvest when thin and about six inches long.  And her Sun Gold and Sun Sugar cherry tomatoes are huge this year.

This recipe is from one of my favorite (if there can be such) books of hers, “Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom, Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking.”

This little book, published a few years before she died, is a distillation of pure Julia and is always perfect to give as an introductory gift to someone who is not already a fan of hers.

Salad Nicoise

• 1 large head of Boston or Summer Crisp lettuce, washed and dried
• 1 pound of green beans, cooked 4 to 5 minutes in a large pot of rapidly boiling water
• 1 ½  Tbs minced shallots or ¼ very thinly sliced sweet onion (optional)
• ½ to 2/3 cup basic vinaigrette
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 3 to 4 ripe red tomatoes, cut into wedges (or 10 to 12 cherry tomatoes, halved)
• 1 ½ pounds potatoes, peeled, sliced and cooked
• 2 3-ounce cans oil packed canned tuna or ½ pound leftover fish like salmon
• 6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and halved
• 1 freshly opened can of anchovy fillets (optional)
• 1/3 cup small black Nicoise or Kalamata olives
• 2 to 3 Tbs capers
• 3 Tbs minced parsley

Arrange the lettuce leaves on a large platter.  Shortly before serving, toss the beans and the potatoes separately with the onion or shallots, several spoonfuls of the vinaigrette and salt and pepper.  Baste the tomatoes with a spoonful of vinaigrette.  Place the potatoes in the center of the platter and arrange a mound of beans at either end, with tomatoes and small mounds of tuna at strategic intervals.  Ring the platter with halves of hard-boiled eggs, sunny side up, and curl an anchovy on top of each.  Spoon more vinaigrette over all; scatter on olives, capers, and parsley, and serve.

Julia Child’s 90th Birthday. Picture from the SF Chronicle.

And because it is Julia’s birthday I have another Julia recipe to share. This one is taken directly from her writing and has no embellishments from me. Below is Julia Child’s favorite chocolate cake “La Reine de Saba—the Queen of Sheba Chocolate Almond Cake.”

From Julia Child: La Reine de Saba—the Queen of Sheba Chocolate Almond Cake

“My favorite chocolate cake.  For an 8 by 1 ½ inch cake, serving 6 to 8.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, set rack in lower-middle level, and prepare cake pan.  Measure out ½ cup sifted plain bleached cake flour and 1/3 cup …pulverized almonds… Using an electric mixer, cream 1 stick butter with ½ cup sugar; when fluffy, one at a time beat in 3 egg yolks.  Meanwhile, melt 3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate and 1ounce bitter chocolate with 2 tablespoons dark rum or strong coffee…, and stir the warm chocolate into the yolks.  Beat 3 egg whites into stiff, shining peaks…and stir a quarter of them into the yolks.  Rapidly and delicately fold in the rest, alternating with sprinklings of almonds and siftings of flour.  Turn at once into the prepared pan and bake about 25 minutes, until it has puffed to the top of the pan but the center moves slightly when gently shaken.

Let cool 15 minutes before unmolding.  This type of cake is always at its best at room temperature.  Serve with a dusting of confectioners’ sugar…”

So without further ado: Happy birthday, dear Julia.

Toujours bon appétit!

Also because PBS brought Julia Child into our lives through their TV programming I feel the need to remind everyone that tomorrow is Maine Public Broadcasting Network’s “Super Thursday” One Day Pledge Drive. Instead of taking up the airwaves with a week of pledge drives MPBN is trying to do it in one day. Please consider donating tomorrow to help them meet their funding goal. For more information check out their site: http://www.mpbn.net/Support/DonatetoMPBN/SuperThursdayOneDayPledgeDrive.aspx

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The Omelette Epiphany

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Aleppo Pepper, Eggs, French Omelette, Griffon Ridge, How to Video, Julia Child, Madame E. Saint-Ange, Omelette

Eggs are a big deal at my house. We have always had a flock of spoiled chickens in the backyard, so there is a never-ending supply of fresh eggs.

So spoiled that Amelia temporarily got away with roosting in the dining room while we treated her for an injury. (Don't worry they are never in the kitchen!)

Most mornings my family has eggs for breakfast. Omelettes are a favorite. I have been making them forever. Sometimes, when I made over-stuffed folded omelettes, I would have a horrible time getting them to fold in half or thirds. They would fall apart, burn, get dry or the fillings would fall all over hell’s creation.

Then one day the mediocre folded-omelette clouds parted and the light of simplicity showered down upon me: the omelette epiphany! There on YouTube was the answer and the end to all my dry, lackluster egg creations. Naturally, Julia was the angel of culinary mercy who spared me a lifetime of dry, overcooked eggs. She revealed her technique for l’omelette roulée to my humble eyes in this video:

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=8109928

Basic Omelette Ingredients

The key is simplicity!  Keep it simple and forgo the heavy fillings that take so much time to add that the eggs overcook. If you want the multi-combos of fillings and sauces, just serve them on top or to the side of the omelette.  Add a minimum of herbs, spices, or cheese to the eggs, so the whole cooking time will be no more than a minute.

Madame E. Saint-Ange describes the perfectly cooked omelette as:

“a creamy omelet: an omelet that has the consistency of scrambled eggs inside and an exterior that is just solid enough so that it can be rolled on itself.” (La Bonne Cuisine)

Julia says, an omelette “should be soft and tender inside, enclosed by a cloak of lightly coagulated egg.”  (We, Americans, tend to be overly concerned about undercooked eggs and so fearful of the 1 in 20,000 eggs that may contain salmonella that we deny ourselves so many delicious foods and condemn ourselves to eating dried, overly cooked eggs.)

Fresh Eggs from the Coop!

So keep the ingredients to a minimum. Each omelette should be prepared individually and contain two to three eggs. To the eggs, you may add salt, pepper, a few herbs or spices, thinly sliced or grated cheese and a teaspoon of water, if you like.  The water forms steam as it hits the hot pan and contributes to the tenderness and lightness of the eggs.  I usually do not add the water. My current favorite egg addition is Aleppo pepper from Griffon Ridge’s stand at the local winter market.  These beautiful red flakes add just a hint of faint heat.

The final ingredient is butter. Add about a tablespoon of butter into a hot pan and swirl it around to coat the entire pan.  As Julia says in the video, “If you don’t have a hot enough pan, you ain’t got it.”  Wait for the foaming of the butter to subside and just before the butter begins to brown, quickly add the beaten eggs.  Swirl again to distribute the eggs, and then pause for a few seconds before you begin the jerking.

It’s all in the motion: continuously jerking the pan towards you until the eggs begin folding over themselves on the far side of the pan.  Julia says:

“The perfect way to master the movement is to practice outdoors with half a cupful of dried beans. As soon as you are able to make them flip over themselves in a group, you have the right feeling; but the actual omelette-making gesture is sharper and rougher…You must have the courage to be rough.”

The last few jerks should include a lifting of the handle to tilt the eggs further onto themselves at the far side of the pan.

I am big fan of the half moon omelette and have made a video clip demonstrating the flipping motion necessary to get that shape. No matter how the eggs come together, be confident that they will be delicious!

Here is my video of the Omelette Epiphany. Please let me know what you think of the format and any other suggestions.

Growing Up with Julia

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Jacques Pepin, Julia Child, Personal, Smith College

Me writing my first blog!

Other kids had Saturday cartoons. I had Julia.

Combing my long toddler hair was such an ordeal that my mother went against her better judgment and plopped me down in front of the tube so that I would stop fidgeting.  She did, however, exercise strict control over which programs I could watch during these hair-wrangling sessions. Julia was at the top of the list. From then on Julia Child has always been one of my top three idols (the other two being Bonnie Raitt and Miss Piggy). I have been watching her for as long as I can remember; so long that the memories of my maternal grandmother and Julia have melded into one person. Hey, both taught me how to cook! In my head, my grandmother is there teaching me to make chicken pastry but the voice coming out is distinctly Julia’s.

I would sit in front of the TV consumed and inspired. I started to cook as soon as I could, constantly mimicking what I saw on the screen and around me.  As I grew older, I continued to watch Julia, learned to bake and discovered Jacques Pepin. My mother, an incredible cook and cookbook collector extraordinaire, began to give me her cookbooks and surrounded me with a growing amount of culinary equipment. Soon I was holding my own in the kitchen, even if I was losing the battle with combing my hair

When it came to college Julia guided me once again. I was a stubborn little bastard when I was looking at schools. It was settled in my mind: I was going to RISD and my parents would just have to deal with it. They insisted (thank the academic gods!) that I go to a liberal arts school. Bah Humbug! How uncool! Then to top it off they wanted me to look at an all women’s college. What on earth? I flat out refused. “Did you know Julia Child went there? And sometimes she comes back to her old ‘house’ and cooks with the students.” Before I knew it I was packed into an auditorium with a hundred other anxious college bound girls and their families listening to Smith College’s pitch. I had seen the Olmsted designed campus. I had seen the houses. I had met the art professors. I was impressed but still not convinced.

During my High School Cake Phase

Suddenly, a woman rushed onto the auditorium stage and whispered something to into the presenter’s ear. The presenter looked out over the audience.  “I am sorry to announce that one of our most beloved alumnae has just passed away”. The audience gasped. She didn’t even need to say her name. Julia was gone, along with any hope of my ever getting to meet her. For some strange reason I took it as a sign. I belonged here. On November 15th I applied early decision and have never looked back.

Graduating in 2009, my class and generation found ourselves faced with one of the worst recessions in history. I have moved back in with my parents. I am not the next “IT” artist. I am not creating the next Facebook. I am not working for NPR. I am not an intern with Conde Nast. I am, like most of my friends, back in my hometown praying for work. (In full disclosure I do have a wonderful job with a non-profit arts organization that I adore. It is part time and a grant-funded position so if I were not living with the ‘rents’, I do not know how I would survive.) Once again, Julia showed up to comfort me. Re-reading her biography I was reminded that after Smith, Julia moved back in with her parents and didn’t come into her own until after WWII. If Julia could wait that long then, damnit, so can I! So in the meantime I began to cook.

I am back in my childhood kitchen: a wonderland of mess and encyclopedic amount of equipment and books. Suddenly I have the time and space to cook and explore whatever I want. I am interested in Southeast Asian, Indian, Northern African, Middle Eastern and Greek cuisines, but the standard is always French and the ultimate authority is always Julia.

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