Postcard: Bocuse d'Or 2009

Photographer Owen Franken capturing a NYT interview with Paul Bocuse.

Chef Jérôme Languillier's Day Job

Speaking of traiteurs, Jérôme Languillier, le champion pâtissier on France's team for the World Pastry Cup 2009 is in charge of the pastry side of a simply delectable traiteur located at Les Halles here in Lyon. The day before the World Pastry Cup opened this weekend, I had the opportunity to swing by the boutique at les Halles in the 3ème and check out their daily offering to the masses, have a little taste, and soak up some Lyonnais pride also being offered from behind the counter.

Boutique Traiteur CLOSTAN
102, Cours Lafayette
69003 LYON

The moment of truth for Team France last night at the World Pastry Cup

Jérôme Languillier - Lyonnais pâtissier, Team France. World Pastry Cup 2009.

Today is a special day in Lyon. We are beaming with pride for our man Jérôme!

Pain de Sucre - Sugarloaf Chicory

This time of year, pain de sucre is found in bins amid the winter varietal greens, spinach, the many strains of radicchio chicory, nestled between the squash and pumpkins. Tender looking elongated tightly packed loaves, in English called Sugarloaf Chicory, tumble gladly into my market basket. While it's still dark in the early evenings, I walk down to the Wednesday night market at Place Carnot where the local farmers come once a week and keep an eye out for it.

I like to cook my pain de sucre by slicing it into chunks, rinsing the leaves, and lightly poaching them in a billowy herbal broth that's been simmered with a big winter bouquet and a ham bone. Chicory goes with pork. I float the poached leaves with the meat and herbs, sometimes adding wedges of pumpkin or topping the soup with shavings of good hard cheeses. A spritz of lemon juice, a drizzle of olive oil, and a grind of rose peppercorns or sichuan pepper acts like a little taste ladle that captures the bitter goodness and lifts it up for a second boost of winter satisfaction. Wrap yourself in a sweater, sip this soup in a chair by the window, slurp the bitter greens, and settle in for an afternoon soaking up some prose.

It somehow seems like spring is around the corner this week.

The Sounds of Bread Podcast

This is the Lucy's Kitchen Notebook podcast in which my friend Cyrus helps me find a way to step outside the box into the world of sound. I proceed from there to the boulangerie to record the action. You should listen to it with headphones if you can.

Sounds come from Eglise St. Nizier, on the presqu'ile in Lyon, Aline serves us at Boulangerie Saint Vincent, 49, quai St. Vincent, also in the 1st arrondissement. Music: Camille, from a song in her album, Le Fil.

Click to hear the podcast.

French Takeout

When you come to Lyon to visit, keep your eye out for the lovely takeout shops. They can come in handy when you are exhausted and just want to put your feet up and charge your batteries on an evening or two. Kind of like a deli but French, this kind of shop is called a traiteur. In addition to a selection of delicious reception type foods, you can also find quick fixes for serving up apéro when you don't have the time to prepare. Prepared home style dishes are the meat and potatoes of these operations too: gratins, charcuterie, sometimes a small selection of cheeses, wines, and things like fresh fruit and yogurt or slices from a pie or cake to round out your meal. This is great takeout when you are on the road, and don't have energy for yet another restaurant meal. Ranging from realistic to pricey, here are three of my favorite Lyonnais traiteurs:

Thiellon Jean Marc
11 r Algérie 69001 LYON
Metro: Hotel de Ville
04 78 28 62 56
Good home style dishes, reasonable prices, good quenelles and terrines.

Pignol
corner of 8 pl Bellecour & 17 r Emile Zola, 69002 LYON
04 78 37 39 61
A Lyon tradition and they do lovely little verrines and fancy things in addition to the regular gratins, loaves, and sautés. They prepare lunch boxes for takeout or delivery and also have a little (unmarked) restaurant upstairs above the sweet pastry side, for lunch. Be sure to reserve if you want to eat lunch there.

La Minaudière
5 r Brest 69002 LYON
04 78 37 67 26
Cher cher cher but really really good. Lyon's ritual source for candied chestnuts in wintertime. You must see the window of this shop to believe. Many a jaw has hit the sidewalk there next to the Cathedral St. Nizier.

A hint about ordering: When you order in these places, if you don't do metric, try ordering "pour une personne" or imagine a little yippy dog behind you in line (so you remember the word) and say "une petite barquette" (meaning a little tub) and they'll serve it up without you having to think about grams or how much that spinach in cream sauce might weigh. They'll always glance to you for approval before sealing the deal.

Milk Jugs, Savoie

An Even Easier Tarte au Citron

This past weekend, I was juggling thoughts of what I need to start hauling back and forth between the two kitchens, the one in Lyon and the one in the Alps. We got in the habit of loading up the car with lots of stuff when we were first going up there, and it stuck. I dream of one day just saying: lets go! and getting in the car and going, without worrying about packing anything. A day when we don't have to make lists and carefully ensure that everything is there before we leave. So far, the hauling things back and forth has worked alright, although we did forget to pack the keys to the house once!

There are so many essential things that we can't get doubles of right now. The kitchen scale, real knives, certain cookbooks I look to for inspiration, the pressure cooker (which comes in very handy on the wood stove), and the blender. I had this bunch of lemons and wanted to bake a lemon tarte, but I didn't have the blender for the one I like to normally do. So I just made up a new recipe loosely based on the one I had done a million times already, a mechanically simpler one that makes use of no implement more sophisticated than a hand whisk. The pay off was incredible when compared to the effort that went into it. Oh man. This one is dangerous.

An Even Easier Tarte au Citron, la recette.

Begin with your favorite short crust. I used this base recipe, substituting cold water for the creme fraiche for no other reason than I didn't have any, and adding a tablespoon of sugar that I'd kept in a jar with a vanilla bean to the mix, because, you know, it was going to be a lemon tarte.

Roll out the crust, cradle it into a small tarte pan (I would say no bigger than 8 inches), or any receptacle that you can imagine holding a tarte, pierce it in regular intervals with a fork to keep it from puffing up as it cooks, and pre-bake it in a moderate oven (350F/180C) until it is firm to the touch and lightly brown around the edges.



In the meantime, take

2 untreated lemons,
4 egg yolks
3/4 cup granulated sugar.

- Wash the lemons, and cut the zest off of one fruit, just the very thin outer yellow part, and sliver it into a very fine mince. Set the zest aside.
- Squeeze both lemons and set the juice aside.
- With a wire whisk, beat the egg yolks and sugar until it lightens in color. This is easily done by hand in about 4 minutes.
- Add the lemon juice, whisk again until it is fully incorporated, and add the minced zest.
- Pour the egg, sugar, lemon and zest mixture into your pie crust, and bake in a moderate oven (350F/180C) for 25 minutes, rotating it in the oven about halfway through to make sure the top browns evenly. (pay special attention to that if you are cooking it in a wood oven!)
- When you pull it out of the oven it will still be a little jiggly, but it will take its lovely firmish curd like texture as it cools. Let it cool completely before serving.

Note: I probably could have topped this one with meringue but it was raining slush out and I didn't want to push my luck.

Choucroute

Basically what you want to do is get a whole lot of sauerkraut, and whatever meat you can find. The meats you choose will depend on your budget, and your local offerings. I adore pork trotters and always include them. You don't need any special equipment to serve a spectacular choucroute for pennies a serving, if you've got the belt cinched tight.

Sauerkraut: a necessity. This is sold everywhere in France at charcuterie counters, either raw or cooked. It sells here for about €1 a kilo. You can do it at home if that floats your boat, recipes abound. If you can find a good source for your sauerkraut, the battle is won. Even if you can only find canned sauerkraut, you can still serve a nice choucroute. Just make sure you give it a good rinse before you start. No matter what form it is in, make it good at home by adding seasonings. Even if you are working with the pre-cooked, you should still throw in your own additions. To each pound, add:

1 California bay leaf or 2 French bay leaves
2-3 sprigs of dried thyme
10 peppercorns
3 cloves
2 cloves garlic, whole, peeled
1 onion, cut into wedges
12 juniper berries (this is very important, because it gives a special flavor that I associate with a nice hot Choucroute on a winter's evening.)
a couple of glasses of Riesling (a dry white Alsacian wine) or if you are in a pinch, a couple of beers.
(These are guidelines. Work with what you have.)

Throw this into a cast iron pot that has a lid, give it a turn here and there to mix things in, bring the liquid to a simmer, and then throw your meats on top. All kinds of pork products will do. Count a half pound per person. Thick cut bacon, whatever local sausages you can get your hands on, smoked meats, pork trotters, the works. Cover up your heavy cast iron pot and put it in a hot oven, and braise for as long as it takes to cook the meats. Me, I usually let it cook for an hour or so, building up the heat at the end to give it a good browning. The steam from the saurkraut will cook the meats. take off the lid for the last 10-15 minutes and brown them at the end. This is completely feasible in a wood fired oven, which adds a nice smoky taste as well.

Serve with Alsacian wine or beer.