Pineapple Vanilla Heaven
After looking through "From My Chateau Kitchen," I decided to make the Pineapple Sputnik. A pineapple is studded with pieces of vanilla beans (I found cutting them in fourths with a scissors worked well and I used about 6) and baked with a citrus syrup (you have to baste it at least four times). The entire house was scented with pineapple and vanilla and the baked pineapple tasted delicious without any need for ice cream, although that would be a good accompaniment.
For the most part this book is a more a pleasure to read than to cook from. Many of the recipes require hard-to-find ingredients like wild mushrooms, celery root, crème fraiche, Epoisses cheese, fresh chestnuts, quail, Soumaintrain, black trumpet mushrooms, truffles and snails. I obviously don't live near any store that carries these items so I'd have to order them all online.
Some of the recipes you might want to try include:
Twice-Baked Spinach Souffles
Fresh Mincemeat Pies
Tangerine Souffle
Caramel Rice Pudding
Sorrel Soup
Apple Tart Tatin
Pumpkin Soup
Cheese Puffs
Venison Stew with Black Mushrooms
Pistachio Cakes with Raspberry filling and Chocolate Buttercream
The recipes are not organized in a normal way, instead they are inserted after delicious descriptions to whet the appetite. All of the pictures are wonderful, especially the picture of cookbooks that date back to the 1500s. The woodlands also look mysterious and inviting, especially with snow on the ground. One thing I found strange is that there are step-by-step instructions with pictures for making croissants but no recipe. For that recipe you might want to try French Women Don't Get Fat.
~The Rebecca Review
Ah, for the Good Life
Ms. Willan ranks right up there with the best of the chef/authors today. Her recipes are concise and her techniques are some of the easiest to follow while producing some of the best results. I cut my culinary teeth on the her book on French Regional Cooking and still consider it to be one of the best books on French cooking written. This books not only charms, it informs and really brings the feeling of living in the French countryside to life as no other cookbook/decor/biography does. I have to say, the Tarte Tatin in the French Regional Cookbook is, in my opinion, preferable to the one contained in Chateau.
Delicious recipes and an exquisite read
This is the best cookbook I have ever read. What an interesting combination of wonderful recipes and a beautiful travelogue.
I made a small change to the Flammiche recipe (forgive me Anne). I made the bread dough on the dough cycle of my bread machine. It worked wonderfully well and saved a lot of time. Everyone who has tasted the flammiche has raved about the flavour and the wonderful appearance.
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