Ya Rayi Our Rai

Chicken Liver Pâté without Butter by Ji Young Park

I co-taught a Thanksgiving dinner cooking class today. A question came up about chicken liver pâté. The student had been using a recipe with butter. I have always made my pâté without butter using the method I learned in France and from my French chef husband. It's really very simple- the chicken livers are processed into a puree raw in a food processor with whatever seasonings that a recipe calls for and packed into a terrine for cooking in a bain marie (hot water bath).

Curious about chicken liver pâté with butter I googled and found numerous recipes for cooking the livers in butter and then pureeing the livers. The student told me that her chicken liver pâté always came out too hard and was unspreadable even after being left at room temperature for an hour or so. I explained to her that she should slice this kind of pâté and that the butter solidifies in the refrigerator.

The Cooking of Southwest France

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

                         "AN INDISPENSABLE COOKBOOK"
—Jeffrey Steingarten, Vogue

The culinary classic, now completely revised and enhanced with sixty new recipes 

                       The Cooking of
Southwest France

Recipes from France’s Magnificent Rustic Cuisine

Paula Wolfert

Eugénie Brazier, Bouchons and Terroir of Lyon by Farid Zadi

                  “Those who underestimate the feminine sex where culinary
                    matters are concerned forget their high level of achievement
                    which has earned them the accolade of cordon-bleu. It is
                    impossible to bring more skill and delicacy, more taste and
                    intelligence to the choice and preparation of dishes than women
                    have brought.”

                    Eugene Briffault (1799-1854)

Lyon is the gastronomic heart and soul of France. Part of the culinary heritage of the city are  "les mères lyonnaises", (the mothers of Lyon), female chefs who brought the cooking of the bourgeois to the dining public. 

Eugenie Brazier is often hailed as the first female chef to have six Michelin stars, more simply put she is the first chef period, the next chef  to have two sets of three stars is Alain Ducasse decades laters.

 

A Three Day Cooking Tour Through the Franche-Comté by Ed McGaugh

Hello everyone and welcome to a little hands-on three day tour through the wines and food of the Jura and the Franche-Comté!

I have had a little love affair with the Franche-Comté region of France for many years now. For those of you that don't know this region of eastern France prepare yourselves for a culinary journey into an area that is as rich in culinary history as any place in France. The food is totally unique to France and the wines even more so. This will be a journey into the very heart of French cooking and wine making. Ask any French person....they will smile and tell you how wonderful this region is. The wines are quite uncommon, they have an almost Madeira like quality. The most famous wine of the region is Vin Jaune and a quick google search will tell you more than I could ever hope to.

So, fasten your seat belts…because we just came back from Belfort and Montbéliard in the northern section of the Franche-Comté and stocked up the larder with Bresse free-range chickens, fresh morel mushrooms and a dozen bottles of the Jura's finest wines. The batteries are charged in the camera and we are ready to go!