Food Minia

Souffles are pretty easy to do once you've got the hang of separating eggs and whipping them into stiff peaks and folding them in (MAFC I 157). Once you have the trick of this, it's possible to vary this infinitely by adding leftovers to the bottom of the dish before turning in the souffle mixture, or putting half the mixture in and then the leftovers, and then the rest. And of course you can vary the condensed cream soups many, many ways. Campbell's Cream of Celery is a good base for fish souffles, as is Cream of Shrimp (MAFC I pp. 166-171). The Campbell's Cream of Chicken and Herbs is a good base for poultry souffles. Cream of Mushroom with Roasted Garlic is good too. These taste less like, well, canned soups! Serves 4 as a starter Preheat the oven to 425 1 10oz can cream of mushroom soup (or cream of chicken, cream of broccoli, etc.) 4 egg yolks 4 egg whites OPTIONAL: grated cheddar cheese In bowl combine soup and yolks. Beat egg whites until stiff. Fold into s...

On Rue Dauguerre last fall, the night the Beaujolais Nouveau was released, I sat at the banquette at Le Plan B , next to a well dressed gentleman who was diving into a plate of marrow bones. Cross cut ones, like in the picture below. With a tiny spoon. Very much enjoying himself.   Julia has a recipe of sorts for marrow bones (MAFCI p. 19), but it's for poaching them quickly to get the marrow for sauces, like sauce Bordelaise . ( You can pull the marrow from stewing bones for this as well, like Osso Bucco.) The fleur de sel is crucial . I got some when I was in La Rochelle --raked from the Atlantic salt flats nearby (and very expensive , for salt). When J first had it, she was skeptical, b u t one taste and she became a believer.      You can eith er split the bones len gth - wise or crosswise. But because I buy dog bones at Fareway, they are always cross-wise . And they are not a s long as I would like . The longer they are, the longer th ey take to roast....

I know I saw The French Chef episode called "Elegant Eggs" ( the video in a new window ) with these cool eggs. But I had forgotten it (as I have most things I saw in the 1960s). So it was with a sense of revelation that I discovered a new (to me) way to fix eggs. And super fast (MAFC I p. 122) and so versatile. You can throw anything on them, almost, including chicken livers!--Julia puts this first!  Plain (or with cream and cheese) it takes only 5 minutes. With sauteed chicken livers it takes 10 minutes. And they really do come out "perfect," as she says in the video. Serves two as a first course 2 eggs olive oil cooking spray [optional:] 2 tablespoons cream or crème fraiche [optional:] 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan or Swiss cheese [optional:] chopped herbs or scallion tops Heat the broiler and place the rack in the closest position to it.  Place a half sheet or shallow pan over two burners on high heat and add 1/4 inch water.  Spray small two shallow dishes (3-4...