French Food Camp goes Paris Bistro

After several weeks of menu planning, and a few days of prep cooking, I was finally ready for the run-up to the French Food Camp Paris Bistro event at home in Laguna.  The night before, I stayed up very late to make some crème brûlée infused with my favorite-of-the-moment Ladurée tea, amongst other to do’s.   My Biscuit Dog is no help, but she is a lot of support, watching me from her bed underneath my favorite kitchen chair at midnight.  This look says Mommy, enough! Time for bed~

 

The next morning, I rose early to crank out three shortbread crusts, then go off to the market do to the final shopping.  Some of the produce stays outside the kitchen door since there isn’t enough room inside.  Guests who come up the kitchen stairs can see what is going into today’s meal just by glancing at the various baskets as I greet them at the Dutch door.  Today, leeks, various potatoes, citrus, various herbs and lots and lots of salads~

In the kitchen, before the guests arrived, I plumped up some sun-dried figs with some citrus and port.  This glorious combination will go into a chocolate tarte.

And a trio of beet varieties from the Irvine Farmers Market got dressed with fresh thyme and a quick drizzle of olive oil, then into the oven wrapped in foil.  Roast at 350 until they pierce with a fork (they should be tender).  Cool and then slip the skins off.  A must for a Parisian Salad!!

Meanwhile, outside, Jill set the table, with Limoges and lots of roses, corks and candles.  We added glassware later.  But a communal table was fun and reminiscent of some of my favorite bistros in Paris, past and present.

When I think of Paris bistros, I think of roses.  There may be one big bunch in a Champagne bucket, or a single rose on each table.  But we went for a row of Champagne buckets, stuffed with roses, down the center of the table. You can buy them by the bunch for $3.99 at Trader Joes.  Accordion music was playing, and it was a fun atmosphere for a lunch. 

The hour before the Camp began was like the hour before the opening of a bistro….is it all in place?  Napkins? Menus? Mustard and butter and water on the tables?? Oui~ Check.  The scene was set!!

My prep was interrupted for a bit when a car I didn’t recognize pulled up the drive.  None other than the fabulous Jonnie of Bread Artisan Bakery.  She and her colleague brought a mass of baguettes, French-style in the flour sacks, along with a handful of seeded epi and three loaves of au levain miche. 

I can not be more excited about any bakery in Southern California….this is my comfort food, my staple, the one bite and it-takes-me-home kind of food.  I’m going to have an event at home for Bread Artisan Bakery as soon as we can coordinate it, but if you live in Southern California and love truly authentic French bread, you must try this bread.  I sent the last of the baguettes and epi home with my friends, and the miche was sliced by Jill and put in the freezer, with the bits being used to make herbes de Provence croutons.   Every morning I have a slice of this bread and an egg for breakfast; it’s insanely good!!!  You can buy this bread at the Downtown Santa Ana Farmers Market on Thursdays 4-8pm, otherwise it’s wholesale, or you have to beg Jonnie to sell you some, I guess!!

As guests arrived, I gave them a tour of the bread and appie table…we had my favorite celeri remoulade (bistro comfort food if there is one) and a terrine I made of porc and veal.  Chicken liver galore and potted herbed goat cheese…

Jill wrote out the abbreviated menu on an enormous LP mirror supplied by my antiquaire friend Leah~

the pop-up brocante was a lot of fun, to browse and to shop and to admire the enormous glass cloches…

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, we got busy assembling a variety of dishes.  When I lived in Paris and frequented many bistros, I loved potato cakes with bacon.  In Paris you got a slice, but I decided to make minis.

Personal potato and bacon cakes; these were soooo good and worthy of any Paris bistro.

On the other side of the kitchen, we rolled out shortbread crust and talked about pastry and Paris at length.

I demonstrated how to roll out a full crust, with all tips you need to do this right~

We ended up with a table full of desserts, including chocolate mousse two ways, lemon tarte, and passion fruit tarte~

The passion fruit tarte is adapted from the Picasso of Pastry, my very favorite patissier, Pierre Hermé.  It’s Jill’s favorite patisserie moment from Paris, can you tell~

 

This sweet confection is now going to be her signature tarte.  It was delicious, surprizing, delicate, amazing, gorgeous, nothing less than expected for a Parisian patisserie~

I layered one of the chocolate tartes with figs and port wine with citrus. Wow, in a bite~  To be a Parisian patisserie it must be better than the rest, in taste, ingredients or texture.

A Katie-Approved dessert plate~~!!!

Oh, but while some of us got started on the desserts, there were still main dishes to enjoy.  Like any bistro, we cranked out the plates from the modest kitchen.  Steak-frites, with fries three ways: salted, herbed and truffled.  Universally loved by all the diners.  This was reason enough to come for lunch for the afternoon~

There was a gorgeous bistro salad plated for everyone.  Very simple but delicious with a Dijon vinaigrette and fresh herbs~

Or did we love the desserts more?  this is the problem of dining in France and in Paris…it’s all good, and if you came to the class, you’d know how to make these dishes yourself~

The next French Food Camp is next month in Laguna, for spring foods.  If you would like to host your own French Food Camp or have me come show you how, please contact me;

Prepping for Paris Bistro

This Saturday I will host the next French Food Camp at my home in Laguna Beach.  You can think of it as a boot camp for French food, or possibly book club for food, minus the books….the first few months everyone was taking copious notes and such, but over time the group wants to eat, chat, chat, drink, and chat, and eat.  And learn a whole bunch of new things about how to cook and shop and how to eat, French Style.  Get the picture??   Each month there is a theme, generally based on the seasons and what is good to eat at that time of year, but this Camp will mark the first destination-oriented event…dedicated to Bistro Food.   And while the Bistro is certainly not limited to Paris, we are focusing on Paris, full stop.  It will be a thoroughly French affair, with my favorite comfort foods as only the French can prepare, and an antique dealer hosting a small brocante.  Today I spent the day in the kitchen testing and noting a few more recipes.  Simple potatoes need not be boring….

when paired with bacon, that is~

I started my afternoon with tea and leeks.  This will become a gorgeously simple soup on Saturday.

I gave Jill a small cup of leek soup to taste…with a little crème fraîche and watercress~

There will be various courses Saturday, and several choices within each course.  And wine, though it will be served in bistro style~

Today Jill and I made the first of several terrines of pâté de campagne, a rustic style terrine made with ground meats, pistachios and cèpe mushrooms from Beaune; it will be great with the amazing bread from Bread Artisan Bakery that we will enjoy on Saturday.  Killer bread, authentic French Bread.  I am so excited!!!!  The first time I made this pâté I had my doubts, but one taste and I was sold.  Can’t wait for the group to taste this on Saturday.

The little vintage loaf pans are numbered, a gift from Brian at Republic Goods for Christmas…love love love…

If you are interested in joining French Food Camp, you can find the list of upcoming camps HERE; we also do private parties and you can contact me HERE for more details….we will post pics of the event on Saturday here so check back shortly~

Are you on Instagram yet??  You can follow me on Instagram HERE to keep up with my daily happenings~

French Food Camp San Diego

I love the way good food brings people together...It provides a certain joy, a thrill of discovery, a satisfaction of knowing.  A great way for people to spend a few hours together and have fun while exercising their creativity and their senses.  And so it was on Monday, our first French Food Camp in San Diego.  It was like book club without the books: the ladies all got together and sampled and tasted, and chatted and inquired….how to do this, what is that, where is this from and so on.  We started with blood orange cocktails, and a discussion of Champagne drinks.  Here the blood orange juice and a few additions are waiting for an overpour of Champagne.

Our hostess, Margarita, is a multilingual wonder and I can’t wait to spend more time with her talking about her life and her interests.  I took over her kitchen, with chickens and citrus and jars of quince sauce.  After the guests left, I stayed up talking with her until the wee hours;  gracias~merci~grazie~

After the chickens went into the oven, we assembled our desserts together: two cakes, to start:

After I did a frosting demo, the ladies did the cake decor, using fruits and flowers and the candied rose petals I had brought.  I loved this group~  They needed no instruction, and got right to decorating the cakes…and they did a pro job of it~

This is the second cake; C doing a great job with striped cake and striped shirt to match~

Brava! They had the idea to grate chocolate on top!

The second cake was more free-form as I was out of whipped creme.  It became another option; sometimes a lesser-dressed cake is ok; this one happened to be gorgeous with red rose petals on top arranged in the shape of a flower, with a chocolate heart for a center~

The side by side~

And then it was on to my easy chocolate pot de creme.  I don’t think they believed me.  This is EASY~

filing the pots~

a little bite will do, topped with whatever they liked from the assortment of fruits and nuts and more flowers~

and then it was to table~

The table having been most graciously set by Jill~

vintage French linens for napkins, finished in style~

a perfect little salad and Italian goat cheese starter~

Followed by lemon risotto made from an enormous stock pot of vegetable broth.  There was much preparation, time and care put into this food, and two days for this stock. 

I taught L from Spokane how to make risotto.  It can be so different to read a recipe versus have someone show you how in person.  I can still see the look on her face as she tasted her finished dish.  Oh wait, she had that look before the cheese and butter were added.  It wad awesome, even before it got plated and dressed up with more cheese and more lemon zest.

And then there was the discussion and demonstration of chickens..here is just one of our finished birds….

We moved on to a surprise palate cleanser of a trio of sorbets: quince-blood orange, heirloom strawberry, and rose.  Shades of red and rose, flavors of ….amazing…natural…seasonal….

to this, in small glasses, we added Champagne, vodka or cognac. OUI~~

By 11pm or so, everyone was done, or out, or in Melody’s case, in bed. 

Thank you to all who joined for the evening…merci mille fois to the beautiful Margarita; I’m sure I’ll see you soon and hope we can get the group together for another French Food Camp~~

On A Winter’s Day

Of the four seasons, winter is my favorite time of year in Laguna; late-winter to be exact.  The tourists are mostly gone, the weather is slightly cooler, and the sunsets are often the most spectacular of the year.  Mediterranean gardens such as ours are alive and thriving due to the scant rainfall.  It amazes me that we can pour water on our gardens all year long, and as soon as we get a quarter inch of rainfall, the garden bursts forth.  But most of all, in winter, we have some of the best foods of the year.  I am thinking today of the East Coast blanketed in snow; of the chill of Burgundy limestone and tomettes underfoot in early February, and then I wander out on the patio in Laguna and pick a gorgeous and huge pink camellia off the bushes.  Why, this bloom and its huge, glossy green foliage almost make me want to whip up a five layer chocolate cake to set them upon!!  Yes, I say, it’s great to be in Southern California in winter…

Lazy-me has not pruned the roses yet, and my most prolific rosebush gave me one more Yves Piaget this week.  The single bloom had about 100 perfectly perfumed petals, which I candied today, using French and American sugars.  At the Irvine Farmers market this morning I found the first batch of my very favorite heirloom organic  strawberries from Berumen Boyz.   I love the French varieties at Chino Farm, but in Orange County, these are the bomb….it’s all I use for jams and sorbets…and in a few weeks for the Paris Food Camp, for strawberry tartes.  The season is short and I am mindful of that so I’ll be busy with these for the next month.

We are so lucky to have the benefit of local citrus.  Forget Morocco and Spain, these come from the kids at Cal Poly.  Meyers lemons and blood orange.  The darker the skin, the darker the flesh, fyi.

The egg basket was also refilled today, with free range eggs.

Returning home, I found a basket of passion fruit and kumquats from my niece’s garden.  Not bad for a backyard gardener in SoCal….

These organic beauties will become a sauce for scallops at Monday’s Food Camp.

The strawberries were expertly hulled by Mom, they given a quick pour of homemade rose syrup and sprinkled with rose sugar and left to macerate for a day or two.  These will be strawberry-rose sorbet for the ladies on Monday.

Meanwhile, I set up the vegetable stock for Monday, in the big copper faitout stockpot; organics from today go into the pot.

I wish the farmers left the whole root on the leeks, like they do in Beaune, but I know enough that these are basically freshly harvested.

And then there is the business of putting away all the rest of the day’s purchases.  I see peas and prosciutto in the menu this week.  And asparagus and mushroom omelettes.  And lots of citrus.  I prefer to buy produce with the leaves attached….Mother Nature does not lie….this is fresh! 

Meanwhile on the stove I set up pots of quince, and pear,and quince trimmings, in a Champagne-based syrup, all for a few dishes for Monday.  The blue willow saucer on top holds the fruits under the poaching liquid.  I will turn these off soon and let them sit overnight in their sauce.   It was an afternoon for multitasking, and trying to figure out how to best capture all of this local goodness right now.

And then on to a little soft and pretty stuff.  For Monday’s class: generously oversized French linen lap-napkins, with a French finish.

I know the ladies will love this.  I love this!!!!

And while I was drying the linens, how could I not appreciate the orchids, which bloom after the first cold nights.  They  never disappoint.  This one is decades old.  I love pale pink phalaenopsis~

The linens were dried in the fresh air, folded and organized.  For lap-napkins or possibly for sale Monday.  Pry these incredibly soft or incredibly rough linen 19thC beauties from my hands, maybe...

And maybe, also, a French sterling Puiforcat butter or cheese knife.  I Loooove this~

I hope to have more of these in my online store this spring.  Perfect gifts….for yourself!!!

Enjoy your winter weekend, where-ever you are~