Sacha Baron Cohen as a French race car driver challenges Will Ferrell in the comedy Talladega Nights in the worst way imaginable: by making him say, "I love crepes," in exchange for not breaking his arm. Although Ferrell initially doesn't know what crepes are, he doesn't want to cave in even after realizing that crepes are just really thin pancakes and that he actually likes them.
Watch the clip, after the jump.
In the spirit of tight battles this week, we bring you Cakespy's showdown between macarons and madeleines. The two pastry delights may be similar-sounding, have similar fussiness factors and each draw from français roots, but only one can be our leader. The votes are in, and ahead with 169 total yays, Team Macaron wins. But not far behind, Team Madeleine got a respectable 123 votes.
Still undecided between the fairy sandwich and fan-shaped Proustian cookie? Aran of the precious site Cannelle et Vanille analyzed the polls best. "I see the madeleine as the 'stout' girl vs the 'école superior' refined macaroon. Madeleines are soft and bumpy, dipped in coffee, making a messy table from spilling milk...And the macaron with its thin crunchy exterior and refined almond crumb is like the perfect, slim daughter of a diplomat.. The macaron has traveled the world... as the madeleine is a sweet country girl." Sounds like a sweet Aesopian fable of the Town Cookie and Country Cookie.
Last year, the New York Times reported about the battle in Normandy over how its beloved Camembert could be made. It was a classic David-meets-Goliath tale of cheesy proportions: on one side you had large dairy operations lobbying the French authorities to allow them to call their cheeses Camemberts even if they had been made with pasteurized milk; on the other side you had the small-scale traditional Norman cheesemakers, still making the cheese from raw milk, ladling every scoopful of curd by hand, trying to fight this change to the decades-old A.O.C. legislation.
Well, the Guardian reported this weekend that David was victorious: A.O.C. Camembert must still be made with raw milk.
Literally speaking, tomme is French for "wheel of cheese." Unsurprisingly, this not-so-descriptive term is used to refer to a wide array of cheeses, many of which are of medium size and weight and made in the mountains of the Haute-Savoie in France. Across the border, the Italians make a related cheese that has a similar name: toma. But can we get any more specific? Do tommes share any unique qualities that separate them from other varieties?
Ms. Glaze, an American female chef working in a 3-star restaurant in Paris, gives the hilarious French lesson you never learned in high school: how to talk like a French chef. Just don't practice this lesson outside of the kitchen—it involves a lot of expletives. [via Elise]
Of course those are Pierre Hermé macarons.
I hope you enjoyed reading this week's macaron posts as much as I enjoyed writing and doing research for them. And by "doing research" I mean "eating a lot of macarons."
Here's a round-up of the posts in case you missed any of them:
In a related Talk topic, Sandro asked, "People just pretend to actually love macaroons, right?" My answer would be, "No, I'm quite sure I love them. But maybe I should eat another one just to be sure."
For more macaron goodness, check out Carol Gillot's latest post on Paris Breakfasts where she visits Gérard Mulot's macaron-filled kitchen. Aside from the photos of muti-tiered macaron-filled tray carts, the part of the entry that most grabbed me was this paragraph:
Many of the stagieres / workers are from Japan. There are (are you sitting down!) 18 Gerard Mulot shops in Japan just selling ONLY MACARONS!!!! WOW! They all come to Paris to learn the recipe and get the training. Hello? YOW American pastry chefs get off your duffs and get on!
I'll gladly go to Paris to be properly trained in the macaron arts.
When most people hear the word macaroon, they think of a chewy mound of shredded coconut, lightly sweetened and held together by egg whites.
That's not what I'm here to talk about.
The macaron that I will expound upon this week is a dainty French cream-filled sandwich cookie which, in its best form, will fill your soul with warm, fuzzy happiness after one bite. I've converted many to joining The Cult of Her Majesty the Macaron, although not without answer to that first question...
Mac-a-what?
Wandering Chopsticks has a great post on buckwheat crêpes that starts off with a trip to a friend of a friend's favorite Parisian crêperie—the directions going something like "In the Latin Quarter by the Saint Michel metro, past the Easy Internet, look for the Tunisian bakery but don't go inside the bakery, there's a window on the outside corner where they make crepes. But you don't want the old guy, or the really young guy, but the third guy."—and ends with a short video demonstration of how to make some without a griddle or crêpe pan.
I myself prefer sweetened wheat flour crêpes (crêpes sucrées) to those made of buckwheat (the savoury crêpes salées, or galettes), but will never turn a good crêpe of any kind down. What fillings go into your favorite crêpe? [via Tastespotting]
Lynn of To Short Term Memories made these lovely macarons for herself after teaching a cooking class. One's filled with dulce de leche and the other with kaya, a rich, creamy jam made with coconut milk, eggs and pandan leaf most popular in Singapore and Malaysia and usually served spread on toast. I do not know how I will continue to exist in the world today knowing I cannot have these in my mouth!
Paul Bocuse, champion of nouvelle cuisine and a celebrity chef well before the present era of Food Network stars, published a cookbook of simple French recipes 25 years ago that's coming out in a new edition on April 24th.
He says, "Simple fare is, in my opinion, the best-the kind that I love to prepare at home for my family and my friends," and so each of the classic 220 recipes—from mustard sauce to rhubarb jam to beef bourgignon—in Bocuse In Your Kitchen was carefully chosen and is explained step-by-step for the home chef, with an accompanying glossary of terms and techniques. Amazon is currently taking preorders for $19.77 (34% off). [via Eat for Victory]
Previously: Happy 80th, Paul Bocuse
Sheryl Cababa of Crispy Waffle has been making a lot of quiches lately as presents for all her friends who've just had babies and don't have time to cook. She says, "I don't know anyone who doesn't like quiche, and honestly, who doesn't like an all-butter pastry crust? I have two options here: one with bacon, and one with spinach and mushrooms for those that don't dig meat. But, you can basically use any savory ingredients that you would use in an omelet-- it'll all taste good."
Xanthe Clay of the Telegraph goes to Paris to learn how to make the perfect soufflé: "Depending on who you listen to, a soufflé is the riskiest dish of all to cook, or something so easy an eight-year-old could throw one together. The truth, as ever, lies somewhere in between. Soufflés are simple, but they do require an under-standing of the engineering of the dish to be a success."
Clay includes five recipes, instructions on how to properly prepare the egg whites, tips on picking the right dishes as well as a short list of good things to add to either savoury or sweet soufflé bases.
Food critic and cookbook author Patricia Wells put together a downloadable version of her FrenchEnglish Food Glossary, to make eating in France less of a guessing game for those who don't speak French.
"In preparing this glossary," she says, "I have tried to limit the list to contemporary terms, making this a practical guide for today's traveler in France. Translations are generally offered for those dishes, foods, and menus, in markets, expressions or terms phrases one is most likely to encounter on menus and in shops. I have also added regional terms one might not find explained elsewhere."
The glossary is available as a Microsoft Word .doc and an Adobe .pdf, so pick the format you like most, and print it out or put it on your PDA for the next time you fly to Paris.
For their March edition of their Chef Talk series, Wine Spectator Online interviewed Thomas Keller of Napa's French Laundry and New York's Per Se, the only chef in the US to have two three-star Michelin restaurants. It's a great piece, covering his philosophy of wine at his restaurants, how his personal wine cellar is stocked (a Zinfandel man!), and the 20 guest room inn he's looking to open across the street from the French Laundry, but to me his thoughts on having choices made for you was the most interesting part:
WS: What advice would you give to a diner who's intimidated by a large list like the ones at French Laundry and Per Se?
TK: That's a real dilemma for us. It's great to see that in our country, we've become more knowledgeable—yet the result is more choices, which can be confusing and overwhelming. I think the best way to go is with the sommeliers. As we've been seeing a resurgent interest in cooking and great American chefs, now we're seeing a resurgent interest in wine, and great American sommeliers. What I would like to see happen at our restaurants is no menu, no wine list. [The staff] would talk to our guests, find out what they want, and talk with the chef. It's about talking to the guest and finding out what flavor profiles they like, and choosing some options for them, both from a varietal point of view as well as from a cost point of view. Wine lists are intimidating, they're so big and take so much time to review that you're actually forcing your guest to be rude to the rest of his party … When you go to someone's house who knows wine and has a decent cellar and knows how to cook, you're going there to have that experience. You're not going to choose the wine from his cellar; he's going to choose it for you, because that's what he wants you to drink. It's a really wonderful experience to have someone do that for you.
Gail Borelli of the Kansas City Star, on en papillote:
In this traditional French technique, fish or meat and vegetables are wrapped in individual parchment paper packets and baked. The paper holds in the heat, gently steaming the food in its own juices.
At the table each guest is served a neatly gift-wrapped dinner hot from the oven. As the slightly browned, puffed packages are slit open, steam pours out in a whoosh, filling the air with fragrant aromas as the meal within is revealed.
“It’s a very fun way to cook,” says Phyllis Brock, a Master Food Volunteer in Johnson County. “It looks very pretty and impressive — perfect for a party.”
Actually, parchment paper packets are a hostess’s dream. They can be assembled several hours ahead of time and cook in just a few minutes. And with many recipes, the only cleanup involved is wiping off the cutting board.
She includes six recipes, of which I like the red snapper fillets en papillote and five-spice salmon with leeks. Regina Schrambling has also written about en papillote, for the LA Times in 2004, Scissors, paper, flavor; I can't wait till the weather is warm enough and the fruit in season to try her recipe summer fruit en papillote.
Georges Rouzeau of Via Michelin magazine, on French food blogs: "95% of these new forums of expression are run, with passion and creativity, by women. A former rally driver, a bookseller, student, housewife, a former computer engineer, a student in Germany, they live in French Guyana, Canada, Portugal, Germany, Grenoble, Paris or Bordeaux. Many of them have travelled extensively. Some of them dream of making a living from cooking. All of them experience great joy in sharing and making exciting new contacts in the four corners of the world. Some have become friends in real life. The blogs with the greatest number of hits receive up to 100 e-mails a day, from requests for clarification about recipes to letters of congratulation. Véronique Chapacou, who ran Saveurs sucrées salées (which has closed down), or Mercotte, for example, are going to write their own cookery books for traditional publication."
Rouzeau links the following eight French blogs at the end of the article, but you'll have to parlez français to really read them: Café créole, C'est moi qui l'ai fait, Clea cuisine, Frais!, La cuisine de Mercotte, Papilles et pupilles, Papilles et pupilles for allergy sufferers, and Tasca da Elvira.
Luxury in a glass by Betty Hallock of the LA Times:
A verrine is an appetizer or dessert that consists of a number of components layered artfully in a small glass. (The word verrine refers to the glass itself; literally it means "protective glass.") Intriguingly composed, they're a study in textures, flavors, colors and temperatures. A beautiful glass might be filled with a layer of mushroom flan, sautéed wild mushrooms, a julienne of prosciutto, parsley gelée, wild mushroom emulsion and topped with a potato and prosciutto galette. Another will have clementine and mint syrup, fresh clementines and a gingerbread "crumble." American chefs are just starting to catch on to the verrine. But in France it's a culinary trend that's captured just about everyone's imagination — including home cooks.
If verrines sound like something you might like to try out for a fancy dinner at home, Hallock includes three recipes, two of them savory and one sweet; the latter is adapted from the emotion exotic created by the celebrated pâtisserie chef Pierre Hermé.
The Spanish company Pateria de Sousa produces a foie gras called Ganso Iberico, which they're marketing as an ethical foie gras because they avoid "the process known as la gavage - force-feeding birds with grain by using a metal tube - by allowing geese to stock up on extra food naturally in preparation for their normal winter migration to Africa. They are slaughtered once they have fattened themselves for their expected long flight south." Ganso Iberico is only produced once a year because of migration, and is even more expensive than traditional foie gras, which costs £10 to its £16 for just 2½oz (70g).
Interesting factoid thrown out in the article: "Although the production of foie gras is banned in the UK, the British remain among the world's largest consumers, with 4,270 tons sold every year." Not that the list of nations that consume foie gras in notable quantities is likely to be very long, but it seems strange (illogical? hypocritical?) that a country that seems to love it so much can also ban national production of the stuff.
Previously: Hot Doug's Falls Foul Of Chicago Foie Gras Ban, NYC Foie Gras Wars. Our Megnut also wrote quite a lot about foie gras last year.
Regina Schrambling on the third Identità Golose, The taste of things to come: At a most unusual chefs' conference, great ideas trumped pomp and pretention: "There were chefs quoting Kandinsky and Lars von Trier as comfortably as they evoked Escoffier. There were chefs filling balloons with spices to pop over dinner plates, and chefs demonstrating how to flavor the bread crumbs so ubiquitous in Italian cooking with lime zest and syrup. They were using all the new-wave toys — agar-agar and sous vide and digital thermometers and no end of Pakojets — but they were also sharing discoveries as basic as this: Baking butternut squash or sweet onions on a bed of rock salt will concentrate the flavor and texture."
Other highlights:
Amy Scattergood on the crepe: "There's an economy of movement and coordination of design — a swirl of batter, a tilt of the pan — that's beautiful, whether the crepes are coming off the pans of the street vendors in Paris, or the crêperies in Brittany or Santa Monica, or the one on the stove top of your own kitchen. The crepe's beauty is in its utter simplicity, both in composition and in consumption; and though it looks difficult, it's actually much easier to make than you think."
Cocktails enter the ice age by Charles Perry, on how bars are paying more and more attention to what goes into what they pour drinks over: "I am starting to make ice cubes with Fiji Water for my Cocktail Reservado list," says Adam Seger, owner of Nacional 27, a Latin restaurant in Chicago. "For my Richy Roy, I stir 28-year-old unfiltered, cask-proof Glenlivet with sweet vermouth and Fiji ice cubes, then finish with homemade bitters and a homemade maraschino."
Today's à la carte: "How many times have you seen a recipe instruct you to “season with salt and pepper”? This is incorrect! You season with salt, but you flavor with pepper. Yes, pepper is a flavoring, not a seasoning. And it’s only one of the flavorings used in French cooking."
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