A Round-up of French Food

****The winner of Ang Pompano's anthology DEVIL'S SNARE is Traveler, and the winner of Daryl Wood Gerber's MURDER ON THE PAGE is DebRo. Please contact me raisleib at gmail dot com with your snail mail addresses! Congratulations!

 LUCY BURDETTE: We have a vaguely French theme going on this week, starting with Monday and ending with a bang--I insist you come back to meet Jane Bertch tomorrow! Plus, I wanted to stay as far away from the toxic election as possible. So here are three of the best French recipes I've shared over the years, beginning with Pat Kennedy's sausage and potato casserole...Do leave comments about your favorite French foods, or tell us if you don't like it!

PAT KENNEDY: This recipe is from the The French Chef Cookbook by Julia Child -- a compendium of the recipes she demonstrated on her first PBS television show. I always say that I learned to cook watching her because I made at least one thing from the show every week. This is not a low-calorie dinner, more of a comfort food dish. But as Julia said, “If you’re afraid of butter, use cream.”

I've loved all the Julia Child TV shows and recently read MY LIFE IN FRANCE by Julia, written with her great nephew Alex Prud’homme. It’s an amazing story about a woman who started her life's journey not knowing how to cook anything, and became the expert on French food in the US and abroad, with multiple complex cookbooks to her name. So I had French food on my mind when I saw fresh endive for sale at the farmers market. I asked the question “what would Julia cook?“ Maybe it would have been something like this…Belgian endive with asparagus in a creamy sauce... 

This gougeres recipe comes from another American food icon, Dorie Greenspan, although I think the same directions can be found in many cookbooks, from Mastering the Art of French Cooking all the way to The Joy of Cooking. I remember my mother making these puffs for parties. She was a plain co

ok, but this was one of her fancy company dishes. She would stuff them with tuna fish or maybe shrimp salad and serve them as hors d’oeuvres. Hayley Snow's mother Janet also served puffs like this at a funeral reception in A DISH TO DIE FOR.

Mom with party food


How about you Red Readers, are you fans of French food and French chefs?

Sausage and Potato Casserole, courtesy of Julia Child and Pat Kennedy

 LUCY BURDETTE: Didn't it make your mouth water the other day when our friend Pat Kennedy talked about sausage and potato casserole? This week she not only agreed to make it for this blog, she invited us to share it! So here she is again...thanks Pat!

PAT KENNEDY: This recipe is from the The French Chef Cookbook by Julia Child -- a compendium of the recipes she demonstrated on her first PBS television show.  I always say that I learned to cook watching her because I made at least one thing from the show every week.  This is not a low-calorie dinner, more of a comfort food dish. But as Julia said, “If you’re afraid of butter, use cream.”

3 cups sliced, previously boiled potatoes

(about 1 pound -- use a waxy potato such as a red-skinned potato NOT baking potatoes.  You can also buy the peeled and pre-sliced potatoes frozen.  But cook those potatoes until they are just fork tender. )

1 cup minced onions, slightly cooked in butter

1/2 pound of Polish Sausage (Kielbasa)  (more for the side dish)

(I always heat more sausage and serve it alongside the potato casserole.)

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups light cream

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

¼ cup Swiss cheese

(You can also use Emmenthaler or even Cheddar – you want a cheese with flavor)

1 tablespoon butter

METHOD

1.       Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

2.       Lightly grease (PAM spray) a 10” pie plate

3.       Arrange layers of potatoes, onion, and sausage in the pie plate

4.       Blend eggs, cream, salt and pepper in bowl; pour over potatoes/onions/sausage in the pie plate

5.       Sprinkle top with cheese

6.       Bake in upper third of preheated oven for 30-40 minutes or until top has nicely browned

I like to serve this dish with a deeply-green vegetable such as broccoli or Swiss chard.  

Mmmmmm, it was delish!