Cookbooks

To preserve their bright green color, the peas are shocked in an ice-water bath after boiling. You can skip this step if desired, but the puree will not have the same vibrancy. Frozen peas can be substituted for fresh; boil them for two minutes.

This North African stew is named for the traditional dish it is cooked in. A tagine is a clay pot that consists of a shallow round base and a cone-shaped lid designed to allow all the moisture to flow back down into the base during cooking. The stews known as tagines are often thickened (and flavored) with dried fruits; the recipe here contains dried apricots, but prunes, raisins, and dates are also common. In France, tagines are often accompanied by couscous; while flatbread is more typical in Morocco. This is a nonbrowned stew, similar to the veal stew on page 205, though far simpler to prepare.

Because of their denser texture, root vegetables can be simmered in water instead of milk, then pureed with milk (or cream) and butter.

This rich yet airy, velvety sauce is made by enriching an acidic liquid with egg yolks and then thickening with butter. Here, we used a wine reduction, but you can skip that step and simply whisk eggs with 1 teaspoon lemon juice and 1/4 cup boiling water. As one of the French “mother sauces,” its preparation is a basic culinary technique that can be varied to create other sauces in the same family (often referred to as “warm emulsions”). By changing the acidic liquid to blood orange juice and zest, you get sauce Maltaise, typically served over steamed asparagus; tangerine juice and zest flavor Mikado sauce. Perhaps the best-known variation is Béarnaise, a traditional accompaniment for steak. To make it, prepare the hollandaise as directed, adding tarragon (the defining flavor of Béarnaise) to the reduction mixture. As it is designed to demonstrate, the method is the key to making the sauce, not the specific ingredients used to give it flavor. When making hollandaise or any of its variations, using gentle heat is critical to achieving the right consistency. The best—and classic—way to do this is to “cook” it in a bain marie, or hot-water bath, instead of directly over a burner.

This recipe produces a puree that is smooth and creamy without adding any heavy cream. Instead, the vegetables are boiled in milk and then pureed with some of the reserved cooking liquid, resulting in a side dish with a pure vegetable taste. When pureeing in a blender, add only enough liquid to keep the blade spinning freely. The fennel puree is delicious with the seared scallops on page 260. It can also be thinned with some of the strained cooking liquid to form a soup.

This “white” stew borrows a nonbrowning method commonly used in making blanquette de veau, one of the canons of French cuisine. In that dish, a stew of veal, onions, and mushrooms is blanketed in a creamy sauce. The meat is never browned (hence the term “white stew”); the stock is thickened with a roux and, traditionally, a secondary thickener called a liaison, made with egg and cream, making it exceptionally rich. This recipe, however, opts for springtime produce over the usual vegetables and makes the liaison optional (you can omit the egg and just stir in the cream, without tempering). To make a classic blanquette de veau, see the variation that follows.

Made with a sturdy pâte sucrée shell, this dessert is a variation on the well-known fruit-topped tarts of traditional French pastry. The most recognizable of those depends on a generous amount of creamy filling such as pastry cream (crême pâtissière, page 476) or lemon curd (page 477), topped with a selection of ripe sliced fruits or whole berries. This one uses panna cotta—“cooked cream,” thickened with gelatin—instead, which is less rich than butter-thickened fillings. It is also a little less formal than the pâtissèrie tarts, as the fruit is macerated and casually served on the side rather than painstakingly arranged. In fact, the cherries in the photo are intended only as a suggestion; top the tart with any type of macerated fruit you prefer. It’s equally delicious unadorned. The crust should be cool before you make panna cotta since the filling needs to set in the shell. The cherries can be macerated up to one hour ahead and refrigerated; however, not more than that because the fruit loses flavor and texture if refrigerated too long, and also will begin to oxidize and brown on the edges.

Infusing liquid—cream, milk, or stock can all be used in this recipe—with herbs is a simple yet effective way to add depth of flavor to purees and other preparations (see the gratin on page 320). Garlic is a complementary flavor for potatoes; we boiled the cloves along with the potatoes to mellow their flavor, but you can use Oven-Poached Garlic instead (page 306). For a lighter-bodied puree, replace the cream with milk or stock, or use a combination. For a richer puree, reduce 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream by half, then infuse with herbs.

Making your own mayonnaise is a great way to observe the process of emulsification—and the result is far superior to the store-bought variety. The key to preparing any emulsion is to add the oil very slowly while whisking constantly and vigorously. In this case, you end up with a creamy concoction in which tiny droplets of oil are suspended in the lemon juice.

The squash filling in the recipe can be replaced with virtually any precooked vegetables you like. You can also omit the goat cheese and sprinkle on more grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Asiago, or use Gruyère cheese instead.

Unlike most other vegetables, tomatoes release a lot of moisture as they cook, so there’s no need to completely submerge them in the oil (or added liquid). It is this “cooking in its own juices” that makes this dish a “confit” (see page 232). Because this technique cooks out most of the moisture from the vegetables, it concentrates the sugars, for a sweet, jamlike condiment to serve with roasted, grilled, or sautéed meats (such as the calf’s liver on page 253). While the confit cooks, stir very gently, or the tomatoes and onions may fall apart.

Curry paste, the flavor base for many Indian stews, often begins with a puree of onion, garlic, and ginger, which is sautéed with spice blends (masalas) until golden brown and caramelized. There are countless varieties of curry pastes in Indian cooking, and the one in this recipe is among the most basic and traditional. The spice blends used in Indian curries are first either toasted in a dry pan or sautéed in oil; in both methods, the heat stimulates the oils in the spices—you’ll know they are ready when they are fragrant (keep a very close eye on them, to prevent burning). Once you’ve mastered the technique, you can make a variety of curries using fish, shrimp, beef, lamb, goat, or one or more vegetables, such as cauliflower or peas and potatoes.

Pâte sucrée is another type of pastry dough. The method for making it is the same as for pâte brisée; you just have to add a bit more sugar and a couple of egg yolks. The presence of sugar results in a sturdier crust—ideal for the more structured crusts used for tarts. The flour and butter are processed slightly longer than for pâte brisée, as there should be no pieces of butter remaining. Both sugar and egg soften the dough a bit, making it a little harder to roll out perfectly than pâte brisée; it’s easier to patch, however, because any tears can simply be pressed together. Pâte sucrée is often used for blind-baked tart shells (meaning the crust is baked before the filling is added; see note on page 448). Because it is tender (due to the eggs), it will hold its shape better than a flaky crust would. A baked pâte sucrée shell is delightfully crisp, providing a nice contrast to soft, unbaked fillings, such as the panna cotta in the recipe that follows.

For this method, garlic is poached with oil, which becomes infused with the flavor of garlic and thyme. When lightly pressed, the cloves will pop out of their peels, and can be served with crusty bread, or spread onto the pastry shell of a savory tart before filling and baking. The oil can then be drizzled over vegetables before roasting, used in vinaigrettes or marinades, or brushed on crostini.

In this recipe, the eggs are paired with a heady sauté of shallots and morels—wild mushrooms prized in French cuisine for their distinctive taste and rarity (they grow largely in areas recently stricken with forest fires). They are in season during the spring months; substitute other wild mushrooms, such as oysters or chanterelles, if morels are unavailable.

When you think of fruit pie, a double-crust beauty with juices bubbling up and out of the top probably comes to mind. And though you will often hear that baking requires precision to turn out right, once you get in the habit of baking fruit pies, you will begin to see an opportunity for some flexibility with the fillings. With a little practice, you can learn to adapt the basic formula depending on what fruit is in season, and to adjust the amount of sugar or thickener (such as flour or cornstarch) based on the juiciness of the fruit. You might even begin to experiment with combinations of fruits, or flavorings such as zests and spices, to suit your own tastes. Apricots and cherries taste great together, as do peaches and blueberries. If you want to combine fresh and dried fruits, try pears with dried sour cherries; up the ante with a pinch of Chinese five-spice powder. In order to get to that improvisational stage, however, you have to start with something very basic, and what’s better than starting with the American standard—apple?

In this classic French first course, the vegetables are first poached, then marinated in vinaigrette. For deeper flavor, the vegetables can be braised in stock instead of poached. The leeks are especially delicious when garnished with sieved egg yolk (called “mimosa” for its resemblance to the golden flower and most often used with asparagus). The leeks can also be combined with other components to create an elegant composed salad, such as the one on page 312.

Potatoes are boiled for all sorts of reasons: to make mashed potatoes, or to slice or quarter for salads. But they are also delicious as is, as demonstrated by this simple side dish. The best potatoes for boil-and-serve are waxy types such as red potatoes or fingerlings; they will hold their shape better than starchy russets.

Coddling, which in cooking terms means to heat food in water that is just below the boiling point, is a gentle steaming method that yields a tender egg. The traditional way to prepare and serve these eggs is in coddlers—special cups with tight lids that trap in steam when the cups are placed in a pan of simmering water. Buttering the coddlers and adding a bit of heavy cream impart richness. For a garnish, sprinkle with chopped fresh herbs, such as fines herbes (a mix of chives, chervil, parsley, and tarragon), finely diced red onion, or crumbled bacon. Soldiers (toasted bread cut into batons) are the traditional—and sole—accompaniment.