Sept/Oct. 2011: Back to Basics with Julia

I'm calling this post back to the basics for a few reasons. One reason is that we've made it one year with this Cookbook Club, starting last September and, with the exception of a few missed months and combined months, we cooked together for a whole year (yay!). The second reason is that now that we've made it a year, I'm proposing a change to the club—I think it will be more sustainable (easier to cook along) if we do one cookbook every two months. Finally, the cookbook I selected for the next two months is the one that got this whole club started: Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

That cookbook was a gift from my godparents to me, and it's really changed my mind about what a cookbook should be—not only a collection of recipes but also an in depth resource on methods, tips, and basics to teach you how to be confident in cooking and able to create your own recipes/masterpieces.

I selected a rather basic and quick fish recipe from the cookbook. It's definitely something you can make on a weeknight and it uses the most basic ingredients. If it's anything like the other recipes I've made, don't let the simplicity of ingredients fool you into thinking it will be a plain tasting dish. Julia has surprised me many times already with the depth of flavors from a rather small ingredient list. The recipe is Filets de Poisson Bercy aux Champignons (Fish Filets Poached in White Wine with Mushrooms).

A note from Julia about the fish: her recipes call for European Sole, but you can substitute flounder, whiting, silver hake, dab, tilefish, fresh-water trout, halibut, cod, pollack, striped bass, monkfish - "any of the lean white fish, in other words, may be used in these recipes."

The alternate recipe is one that I've made before, and once again, it's so very simple that you may be shocked at how tasty it is. It's the Potage Parmentier (Potato and Leek or Onion Soup). It's a perfect cooler weather weekend lunch. It will also teach you the basics of a very good soup base from which you can build your own soup creations.

I will post my review and a linky link on Wednesday, October 26.

If anyone has thoughts/objections/ideas about the changes I've made, please comment here or shoot me an email (stephandbogdan at gmail dot com) and we can decide if there's a better way to increase participation. Also, please let me know if you're interested in selecting a cookbook and recipe (you can do it more than once!).