All of us should nourish ourselves with the best quality, seasonal ingredients we can find, and treat them with respect in their preparation. Our next series of cooking classes seeks to give you confidence in the kitchen.  Creating your own stocks, soups and sauces make for endless combinations of quick fix meals. Sign up for a cooking class and gain real skills for your kitchen.  Write your own shopping list to save time and money.

The key to saving time and money is meal planning.  Our 20 Minute Miracle Cooking Class will give you the ability to prepare dinner in a flash and provide you with a guide for the well stocked pantry.  You will be inspired to create your own shopping list of necessities that will reduce the time you spend at the store and allow you to focus on the foods you need, allowing you to save.

It’s convenient to be at La Cuisine everyday, and you can count on our prepared foods for dinner.  You can pick something up and serve dinner without the dirty dishes, prep or hassle.  The case is stocked with entrée’s you would order from any restaurant menu…………… at half the price.

Shrimp crepes, slow braised beef with noodles, stuffed salmon, potato gratin, coconut chicken, Moroccan carrots are all items that I enjoy eating, but don’t have the time, spice rack or ability to prepare. Also, many home cooks, myself included, set their heart on preparing a special recipe, only to find that they’ve spent more on the spices, herbs, condiments and other miscellaneous ingredients needed, than they would have on prepared foods take-out of the same item.  I prefer to trust our chefs here at La Cuisine with the spicing and preparing of many dishes rather than attempt them at home.  Our prepared foods allow me to relax and truly enjoy a meal, knowing that I saved time and money while eating all natural, freshly made, real foods.

Please post your favorite quick fix recipe, we would love to hear from you.

Best wishes and good luck in the kitchen.

Alena F.

La Cuisine is featuring barbecue on winter weekends.  Ribs, brisket and pulled pork are on the menu and in the case.

Barbecue, an inherently American tradition, is truly an art form.  There are an extraordinary variety of approaches, including brining, dry rubs, type of smoker, type of wood, baste or not, and then when you think you are finally done, the sauce debate begins, and has as many components as everything that preceded it.

Ben’s had an opportunity to taste the ‘cue in all of the meat mecca’s in the country.  Early trips to Kansas City opened the door to Arthur Bryant’s and the first taste of their infamous burnt ends.  Memphis brought an entirely new understanding of pork, and the zesty balance that vinegar can bring to the process.  The Hill Country of Texas is where beef is king. Brisket smoked for 12-18 hours is nothing short of a revelation.

We’ve had a smoker trailer, about 14′ long, for 12 years.  We buy beef, chicken, turkey and pork from trusted vendors, trim as needed, and begin with dry rubs tailored to each product.  About a day later, we load the smoker with a blend of hickory, oak and apple, and when the firebox settles down and the barrel is at about 200, we add the product.  Low (heat) and slow is the mantra.  Chickens and ribs smoke for about 4 hours, shoulders for 10, and brisket for 15 or so.

We make two types of sauce to enjoy next to your ‘cue.  The House Sauce is tomato based, a bit thicker and sweeter, perfect for chicken and beef.  We also make a Pork Sauce, vinegar based, tangy, perfect to cut the richness and accent the natural flavor.  Both are available to take home.

Stop in and give it a try.  Hope to see you soon.

Tags: arthur bryant's, barbecue, brined, brisket, cue, dry rub, memphis, pulled pork, ribs, smoked, texas

Today’s New York Times had a significant number of letters commenting on Marcella Hazan’s Op Ed piece from November 29th.  Seems like she hit quite a nerve in the controversy between calling one a chef versus a cook, and the ramnifications of the decision.

Although I’ve been cooking most of my adult life, and produced most of La Cuisine’s food for the first 8 – 10 years of our existence, I have never thought of myself as a chef.  I am a fairly non-hierarchical guy, I call my doctors by their first names along with anyone else I happen to run into.  I don’t think it’s disrespectful, just a way to diminish barriers and promote conversation.  Here in the kitchen, we have an Executive Chef, but no one refers to him as such, his name is Uli.  Our Pastry Chef is Kevin, our Sous Chef Louis, etc.  The titles are descriptive of their roles in the organization, not what we call them.

My son Alex is completing his externship from the Culinary Institute at Restaurant Daniel, a fairly traditional French kitchen, where titles are used more often than not as a sign of respect.  Most of the instructors at Hyde Park are referred to as Chef as well.  It is simply a different orientation.  Neither is right or wrong for every one in every situation.  Does it “cheapen” the title as some in today’s paper thought, when applied to today’s celebrity “chefs”?  Probably a bit – can you equate four or five years of experience to 20 or thirty?  Does the definition need to be expanded a bit to embrace the radical shift in training, experience and exposure that today’s chefs receive?

The most interesting point Marcella made back on the 29th is the need to remember that “the food prepared and shared at home…has provided a solid center to our lives.  Which is why, as we come together over the holidays, we should take a moment to think about how we can become cooks again.   Cooking delivers its truest and most enduring gifts when it is savored in intimacy, prepared by a cook with love.”

I think back to my grandmothers’ kitchens in Brooklyn, the aunts, uncles, cousins and more gathered around large tables laden with food, cooked with joy, eaten with delight.  In many respects, it is why I do what I do.  Cook or chef, chef or cook, I’m not sure it really matters.  What seems most important to me is the simplicity of great ingredients, well seasoned.  Gather those you care about most, then cook, eat, drink, enjoy.

Ben

Tags: chef, cook, Culinary Institute of America, ingredients, marcella hazan, New York Times, Op ed, Restaurant Daniel, seasoned

A warm lentil salad made a great addition to a mustard coated rack of lamb the other night. The lamb was salt and peppered, simply coated with Pommerey whole grain mustard, dusted with bread crumbs, and then thrown in a 400 degree oven for about 20 – 25 minutes, depending on the size of the rack and how you like your lamb.

After a quick browse through Alice Waters The Art of Simple Cooking, I cooked a cup of lentils for about 30 minutes until done, drained them, and tossed in some salt and fresh ground pepper, and about 2T of Banyuls red wine vinegar then tossed while still warm. I fine diced about 1/2 cup each of eggplant and onion, quickly sautéed in olive oil, and finished with another 2T of vinegar. Added that to the lentils. Picked about 1/4 cup total of mint, basil and parsley, chopped fine, added to the lentils, with the tips of a bunch of blanched asparagus. Just before serving, I added 1/2 piece of Chévre aux épices, a wonderful French goat cheese we just started carrying. As you can see, it is crusted with fine herbs. It is fresh, soft, mild, and a perfect compliment to the lentils. Added a green salad and bingo – another 30 minute miracle!

Tags: Alice Waters, Chevre, fine herbs, goat cheese, lamb, lentils, pepper, Pommerey, salt, summer dinning, The Art of Simple Cooking

Julia Child would be 96 today. The recent revelations about her career as a spy (New York Times, 08/14/08) have only added to the incredible stature of one of the first true stars de cuisine in America. Her first tome, Mastering the Art of French Cooking was published shortly before I started law school in Boston. Written with Louisette Berthole and Simca Beck, the volume was both scary for it’s incredible detail and exciting for the door it opened to French cuisine. Watching the taping of her shows at WGBH, buying heretofore unheard of ingredients at Cardullo’s in Harvard Square or the stalls of Haymarket downtown became one of the few affordable activities on a student budget that occasionally produced some good food as a by product. She defined technique, the illustrations were typically helpful, sometimes not so, but the recipes did work if you followed them with precision.

Her style evolved as our palette’s did, focusing on ingredients as well as process, pulling back from the grand cuisine of her early works to embrace a more fluid, relaxed approach, much easier for the novice to try. Even in her 90’s, her persona lit up the TV screen in the specials she did with a variety of chefs, including our local celeb, Jacques Pépin. The chemistry between them was delightful.

One of my all time favorite Julia recipes, done in conjunction with Jacques, is for Leg of Lamb. It’s perfect for this time of year with some grilled eggplant, steamed just dug potatoes, and the last of the haricot vert in the garden. See below.

I, like many, can still hear that distinctive voice in the pages of her books, and remember her signature sign off: Bon Appetit!

Leg of Lamb a la Julia Child

2 1/4 pound leg of lamb, butterflied

Marinade

2 large cloves of garlic
1/2 tsp salt
2 TBS dijon mustard
1 TBSP soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp thyme
2 TBSP lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil

Puree garlic into a small bowl and mash to a paste with the salt. Whisk in the mustard, soy, herbs (one may also use rosemary or oregano, or a mixture of all three), lemon juice. Add the oil slowly, still whisking, to make a mayonnaise-like cream.

In a dish large enough to accommodate the leg of lamb, coat with the marinade. Let sit at least 8 hours, overnight if possible. Note – I use a large ziplock that I can rotate and turn every hour or so.

Preheat oven to 325. Roast lamb in a roasting pan until the internal temperature reaches 140 degrees (approximately 45 minutes — as determined from Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home, it should be about 24 minutes per pound). Let rest under foil tent for 15-20 minutes and serve.

Tags: America, Bon Appetit, Boston, Cardullo's, chefs, chemistry, eggplant, French cuisine, Garden, grand cuisine, grilled, haricot vert, Harvard Square, Haymarket, Jacques Pépin, Julia Child, Julia recipes, Leg of Lamb, Louisette Berthole, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, persona, potatoes, Simca Beck, WGBH