Cuisine

Food is like a beautiful woman: It is sometimes more dramatic and more appealing simply and honestly presented. You can embellish a dish to catch the eye, but it doesn't mean that the taste will be truly satisfying. I love bistros which may have started out as places to grab a quick meal but they suggest to me an informal, comfortable restaurant where the food is flavorful and straightforward. The cooking is familiar, like the meals you might enjoy at home, sometimes with simple recipes, but often personalized by the chef and the change of seasons.  In France, we can find something for everyone at bistros. In America, steakhouses such as Morton’s, Del Friscos, Elway’s, and others often cater to replicate the best bistros. But the best food in France is still cooked at home and we have collected recipes that we like to eat (and cook). I am often asked about my style of cooking and how I selected these recipes. It's simple--they are the best recipes I have found.  If you have a better one, please post it to me.  I'll try it before I post it, if it is better, I will take down the one I have and use yours.  Usually the recipes start out on things learned in the kitchen, but also from our experiences eating all over the world. Ultimately, they cater to my personal tastes. I think it is more fun to cook what I like to eat. This is a collection of my favorites. My daughter often appreciates the simplest of recipes, as many of them do not take a lot of trouble to clean up after, which is her task after mine as the chef. But, whenever possible, we try to simplify, if it does not sacrifice taste.

Now is the time of year for spring lamb.  Nick de Toldi, our friend in France, recently discussed with us one of the dishes cookable with the terrine de Soufflenheim, but there this "best seller" of the bourgeois dinner parties named "Le gigot de 7 heures."  It is an old recipe that lived a sort of revival in the late 1980's.  In Nick's opinion it was re-launched by a clever guy who purchased the original Auberge Ravoux in Auvers sur Oise (where Van Gogh died) and who wanted to serve only "vintage" cuisine. The guy was Dutch and very cleverly explored some old cook books and was serving a shortlist of very original and talented good things at very fair price. The mistake to avoid for this dish is to use a too expensive lamb. In France for a leg of lamb you have 3 levels of price: 1/ Prime French young lamb, for which the leg costs around 60 euros. 2./ Imported from Ireland or Scotland probably at 30 euros for the same sized leg. 3/ Imported frozen from Australia or New Zealand dropping at 12 euros for the same size leg. The most expensive is only for light cooking serving the meat "rosé".  The UK ones can go either long or shot cooking and the NZ ones are very good for all sorts of heavily cooked or spiced tajines, couscous, curry, Daubes d'Avignon, gigot de 7 heures,  etc... (and even for the French Asado, usually cooked somewhere along the sporting road). As for lamb stateside, try to find a small local producer.  We have one here, selling ones which are every bit as good as the French ones.  As for imported ones, Costco provides a nice de-boned leg of lamb which is perfect for the French Asado or gigot de 7 heures.

 The word brandy is derived from the Dutch word brandewijn, ("burnt wine"), which is what the 16th century Dutch described wine that had been burnt or boiled in order to distill it. Brandy can be traced back to the expanding Moslem Mediterranean in the 7th century where Arab alchemists distilled grapes and other fruits in order to make medicinal spirits. There are three basic methods of making brandy:  (1) brandy distilled from fermented grape juice or crushed, but not pressed, grape pulp and skin, such as Cognac, Armagnac, Brady de Jerez, and then aged in wooden casks which colors it, mellows the palate, and adds additional aromas and flavors (Scotch and whiskey are more or less the same process but with mash made from the same ingredients as beer); (2) pomace brandy (Italian Grappa and French Marc are the best-known examples) which is made from the pressed grape pulp, skins, and stems that remain after the grapes are crushed and pressed to extract most of the juice for wine, and are usually minimally aged and seldom see wood, making for a harsher flavor; and (3) fruit brandy which is the default term for all brandies made from fermenting fruit other than grapes, but these fruits tend to lack enough sugar for sufficient alcohol for proper distillation, and thus are macerated in high-proof spirit to extract their flavor and aroma. The extract is then distilled at a low proof. Calvados, the Apple Brandy from the Normandy region of Northwestern France, is an example. Soon after WWII, the Department of Viticulture and Oenology at the University of California at Davis began to develop a prototype "California-style" brandy, which focused on a clean palate and was lighter in style

Armagnac is produced in the Gascony region of France, further south towards the Spanish border, than its more famous and much more expensive cousin, cognac.  Both Cognac and Armagnac are certified regions for making these brandies. Armagnac is traditionally distilled once, which results initially in a less polished eau de vie than Cognac, where double distillation usually takes place. However, long aging in oak barrels softens the taste and causes the development of more complex flavours and a brown colour. Aging in the barrel results in some alcohol escaping, the part known as part des anges ("the angels' share). Armagnac is sold under classifications, "VS" is a mix of Armagnac grown brandies with at least two years of aging in wood, "VSOP" is at least five years, and "XO" is at least six.  Hors d'âge means the youngest component in the blend is at least ten years old. Older and better Armagnacs are often sold as vintages, with the single year of vintage demarked on the bottle. Brandies keep for years, even after opened, so treat  yourself to some Armagnac.  An inexpensive one we like is Marquis de Sauval Armagnac, around $30 a bottle at the time of writing. Because of the single distillation versus the double of Cognac (some 150 miles to the north), some French refer to the "taste of the earth" that they experience with Armagnac, while others simply call it "dancing fire followed by velvet flame."  Vintage is not as important as the blending.  Cost (and quality) is usually dependant upon origin (or terroir), the grapes, the distillation process, the length of time spent in oak casks, and the brilliance of the blending process.   If you find a good one, which is easy to do in the Gascony countryside (as this is

A few times a month, I frequent Diyar International Market in Denver, Colorado to get some steaming breads from its Middle-eastern shaped ovens.  These samoon are usually scooped up as fast as they come out, five loaves cost less than $2. There samoons are pizza-shaped dough which is slapped onto the oven wall.   They are also baking tandoori breads which are produced from circular dough and baked in the clay oven.  The proprietors are from northern Persia. Their butcher section is stocked with fresh halal meat, butchered weekly from local goat, chicken, lamb and beef carcasses.  It is the freshest and best looking meat selection of any Middle-Eastern market in Denver.  Diyar International Market, 2159 S. Parker Road; 303-337-6527 Another worth a visit is Haji Baba Bakery, 5708 E. Colfax Ave. for pita bread baked here but it is sold at other Middle Eastern grocery stores throughout Denver, as well as Wild Oats Market. We also like two of the other International Markets along Parker road and Iliff and Evans for hard goods.  Pick up some Mediterranean roasted almonds while you are there.