Two legendary cooks invite us into their kitchen and show us the
basics of good home cooking.
Julia Child and Jacques Pépin are synonymous with good food, and in
these pages they demonstrate techniques (on which they don't always
agree), discuss ingredients, improvise, balance flavors to round out a
meal, and conjure up new dishes from leftovers. Center stage are
carefully spelled-out recipes flanked by Julia's and Jacques's
comments--the accumulated wisdom of two lifetimes of honing their
cooking skills. Nothing is written in stone, they imply. And that is one
of the most important lessons for every good cook.
So sharpen your knives and join in the fun as you learn to make:
- Appetizers: from traditional and instant gravlax to your own sausage
in brioche and a country pâté
- Soups: from New England chicken chowder and onion soup gratinée to
Mediterranean seafood stew and that creamy essence of mussels,
billi-bi
- Eggs: omelets and "tortillas"; scrambled, poached, and coddled eggs;
eggs as a liaison for sauces and as the puffing power for soufflés
- Salads and Sandwiches: basic green and near-Niçoise salads; a crusty
round seafood-stuffed bread, a lobster roll, and a pan bagnat
- Potatoes: baked, mashed, hash-browned, scalloped, souffléd, and
French-fried
- Vegetables: the favorites from artichokes to tomatoes, blanched,
steamed, sautéed, braised, glazed, and gratinéed
- Fish: familiar varieties whole and filleted (with step-by-step
instructions for preparing your own), steamed en papillote, grilled,
seared, roasted, and poached, plus a classic sole meunière and the
essentials of lobster cookery
- Poultry: the perfect roast chicken (Julia's way and Jacques's way);
holiday turkey, Julia's deconstructed and Jacques's galantine; their two
novel approaches to duck
- Meat: the right technique for each cut of meat (along with lessons in
cutting up), from steaks and hamburger to boeuf bourguignon and roast
leg of lamb
- Desserts: crème caramel, profiteroles, chocolate roulade, free-form
apple tart--as you make them you'll learn all the important building
blocks for handling dough, cooking custards, preparing fillings and
frostings
- And much, much more . . .
Throughout this richly illustrated book you'll see Julia's and Jacques's
hands at work, and you'll sense the pleasure the two are having cooking
together, tasting, exchanging ideas, and raising a glass to savor the
fruits of their labor. Again and again they demonstrate that cooking is
endlessly fascinating and challenging and, while ultimately personal, it
is a joy to be shared.
