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New York Times
31-03-2025
- General
- New York Times
How to Make an Omelet, the French Way
From history to technique, become an expert on this eggy classic. An omelet Francesco Tonelli for The New York Times Published March 31, 2025 Updated March 31, 2025 [This article was originally published on Feb. 13, 2017.] The omelet is the egg taken to its very highest form. With nothing more than salt and the tiniest amount of butter added, the omelet celebrates the richness of eggs without distracting from their delicacy. This guide is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, the 10 definitive dishes every modern cook should master. The French have a genius for cooking with eggs. They poach them, they use them in sauces, they whip them into soufflés. And they fold them into omelets, an excellent introduction to that great tradition. Like much of French cuisine, the omelet represents the perfect intersection of a precise technique and a pristine ingredient. The more skilled the cook and the better the eggs, the more ethereal the result. The omelet is such an icon that it is often held up as the test of a chef's abilities. But it is also regarded as one of the fundamentals, among the first dishes Julia Child made on Boston public television for French cooking neophytes as she publicized 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking.' Whether made by a professional or a novice, it is undeniably speedy. As Child once said, introducing the dish: 'How about dinner in half a minute?' So what makes an omelet uniquely French? It is the exacting technique of folding the eggs to yield tender, loose curds in the center and a delicate but firm exterior. That juxtaposition sets the omelet apart from Italian frittatas, Spanish tortillas and Persian kukus, which are cooked into flat, sliceable cakes. We give a classic omelet recipe here, and another for an omelet mousseline, a fluffy variation in which the whites are whipped and then added to the yolks. An omelet can be made either savory or sweet, and although sweet omelets have all but fallen away these days, it might be time to resurrect them. After all, eggs can be seasoned with sugar and fruit or a syrupy jam as easily as with salt, onions and cheese; think of clafoutis, tarts and soufflés. Once you have mastered the basic technique, the variations are practically limitless. 'Mound of Butter' by Antoine Vollon (1833-1900) National Gallery of Art, Washington The omelet is ancient. Doubtlessly humans have eaten fried, beaten eggs since hens and other fowl were domesticated in the sixth century B.C. Romans had ovemele, eggs cooked with honey and pepper; Persians ate kuku, eggs fried with copious amounts of herbs. There were tortillas in early Spain, and frittatas in what would become Italy. All were fried cakes loaded with fillings — vegetables, meat, potatoes, spices and herbs — cooked on both sides until set, and then sliced so they could be eaten out of hand. Stefano Bianchetti/Corbis, via Getty Images But the fluffy French omelet we know is different. With its barely set eggs, it requires a spoon or fork to be eaten. The word, and variations of it, date to the mid-16th century — around the same time Catherine de Medici of Italy, who was married to King Henry II of France, is said to have introduced the fork to the French. Historians have speculated that the emergence of the fork and the evolution of the omelet may be intertwined. By the 17th century, the omelet entered the canon, appearing in La Varenne's 'Le Pâtissier François' (1653) as an aumelette. The arrival of better stoves with enclosed fires, in the 18th century, made it easier for cooks to prepare omelets because they could more easily regulate the heat. The omelet's popularity has only grown and endured, making it a staple today around the world in restaurants and home kitchens alike. Omelet pan. If you don't own a nonstick pan or a seasoned, carbon-steel omelet pan, now is the time to invest in a good one. It will be difficult to master an omelet in a stainless-steel pan or cast-iron skillet; those heavier pans are too hard to maneuver. Buy something easy to handle that adjusts to heat changes quickly. Spatula. A heat-resistant rubber spatula is an excellent all-purpose kitchen tool. Here, you'll use it for stirring and folding the eggs. Wirecutter, a product recommendations website owned by The New York Times Company, has guides to the best nonstick pans and spatulas . This recipe is for a basic French omelet with three eggs: enough for a hearty breakfast or brunch, or a light supper for one. The key to mastering this recipe is controlling the heat so the eggs do not brown, and whisking the eggs in the skillet so they set on the exterior but remain fluffy inside. A good nonstick or well-seasoned carbon-steel skillet is central to cooking the ideal omelet, which should be tender and slightly runny. Once you've got the technique down, you can play around with your seasonings, adding minced herbs, grated cheese, diced ham or sautéed vegetables. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master. By The New York Times Cooking The omelet is extraordinarily simple, and so it pays to choose your ingredients smartly and practice the cooking techniques at the stove. European-style butter is best for an omelet because the fat content is slightly higher than that of most American-style butters. Always use unsalted butter, then add salt to the eggs, so you have greater control over the seasoning. Use good eggs, preferably local. Eggs are the main component of this dish; the more flavorful they are, the better your omelet will be. They should be at room temperature, to allow your omelet to cook quickly and evenly. Leave them on the counter for an hour before cooking, or let them sit covered in warm water for 20 minutes. Don't overbeat your eggs. Beat them lightly, just until the white and yolks are well mixed and uniform in color, but not airy or bubbly. If you introduce too much air into the eggs by whipping them, you'll end up with something closer to an omelet mousseline (see the recipe below) rather than the classic dish. For fluffier eggs, add up to a tablespoon of diced cold butter into the beaten eggs before cooking. Use an absolutely clean frying pan. Don't cook the eggs in bacon fat or any singed leftovers that will alter the look and taste of your omelet. Be judicious with the butter in the pan. You just need enough to coat the pan lightly but thoroughly — about 1 tablespoon. Do not use too much, or the eggs will be heavy and greasy rather than light. For extra flavor, brown the butter in the pan before adding the eggs. For richer eggs, after folding the omelet, smear the top with softened butter or crème fraîche before serving. This is also a good way to get garnishes to stick to the top, caviar and herbs in particular. You've got three main technique options for cooking an omelet. While all will get you to the same end result of ethereal scrambled eggs encased in a gossamer shell, cooks generally prefer one method over the others. Try them, and see which one works best for you. Note that all are doing the same thing: introducing air into the eggs by beating them until they are fluffy, then letting the bottom set so it holds all those light, eggy curds. As with any new technique, practice makes all the difference here. So after choosing the method you like best, practice it until you get it just right for your taste. You can fold your omelet either in half or thirds as desired. Both are traditional. Pour the eggs into the hot pan, and immediately start beating them with a fork until fluffy. Once curds begin to form, stop beating and let the bottom of the eggs set for a few seconds before tossing the pan or using a fork to fold the eggs over themselves, either in half or thirds. Pour the eggs into the hot pan, then vigorously swirl the pan, shaking it back and forth to agitate the eggs until the center is fluffy and filled with large curds of eggs, and the bottom sets. Shake some more until the eggs start to flip over themselves, then slide the omelet onto a plate, either in half, or use a fork or spatula to fold into thirds. Pour the eggs into the hot pan and let them set for a few seconds. Lift the set edges with a spatula or fork to let uncooked egg run underneath, pushing the cooked part of the eggs into the center of the pan to form large, fluffy curds. Repeat this until the eggs are set on the bottom and just cooked in the center. Then use the spatula or fork to fold the eggs, either in half or thirds. Francesco Tonelli for The New York Times In France, omelets are often served plain, or with a sprinkle of minced herbs. When they are filled, it is with discretion, just enough to complement the flavor of the eggs without overwhelming them. Use ¼ cup to ⅓ cup filling for a three-egg omelet, or less with highly flavorful ingredients like herbs and strong cheeses. According to the French chef Jacques Pépin, the classic herbs for omelets are chives, chervil, tarragon and parsley — soft herbs that you can mince. Add the herbs to the bowl along with the eggs and beat everything together. Vegetables of all kinds make great additions to omelets. They all need to be cooked first, in any way you like. Feel free to use leftovers if you have sautéed or roasted vegetables from last night's dinner. Try spinach, kale, mushrooms, onion, shredded zucchini, shredded turnip, broccoli, corn, eggplant, diced cooked potatoes or roasted peppers. Cubed ripe tomato can be added raw, though it is a good idea to seed it first. Meat can give an omelet savory heft. Use diced ham or salami; cooked, crumbled sausages; cooked chicken or turkey; browned pancetta or bacon; or diced leftover roasted meats (roast beef or pork or lamb) and leftover stew meats. Even that little bit of leftover beef Bourguignon can find new purpose in life folded into an omelet. Cooked flaked fish, either left over or freshly prepared, works beautifully in an omelet. Any kind of fish will work, from the lightest, flakiest sole to more robust salmon or sardines. Chopped cooked shrimp and scallops are lovely. You could also use canned fish such as tuna or salmon; flake the fish first and blot away any excess oil with paper towels. Diced smoked salmon is a more deluxe omelet filling, as is caviar — either pricey sturgeon roe, or more affordable salmon or trout roe. Add caviar to the omelet after cooking, when it is already on the plate, and do so just before serving. It is more of a garnish than a filling. A dollop of crème fraîche or sour cream works particularly well alongside. You can add any kind of cheese to an omelet, both shredded or grated cheeses such as Cheddar, Gruyère, Parmesan or mozzarella, and diced soft cheese, including soft goat cheese, cream cheese, or ripe Brie or Camembert (remove the rind or not, to taste). Crumbled blue cheese and feta also work well. Jam is nice with either a regular omelet or a mousseline omelet, but skip the black pepper. Use 2 to 3 tablespoons of any flavor jam or fruit compote, then sift powdered sugar over the top of the omelet when done.
New York Times
31-03-2025
- General
- New York Times
This French Potato Dish Is Crisp-Tender Perfection. Here's How to Make It.
Let Melissa Clark shows you how to make this simple showstopper easily and beautifully. Francesco Tonelli for The New York Times Published March 31, 2025 Updated March 31, 2025 [This article was originally published on Feb. 13, 2017.] With only two main ingredients, butter and potatoes, pommes Anna is a minimalist triumph of French technique. It is also one of the more challenging potato dishes to prepare and a true glory to any cook who makes it correctly. This guide is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, the 10 definitive dishes every modern cook should master. Crisp frites, creamy gratins — the French do beautiful things with potatoes. And of all the magnificent potato dishes they make, pommes Anna is a classic, one that deserves more acclaim beyond France. A buttery cake composed of paper-thin slices of potato, pommes Anna is similar to potato gratin in the way it is layered and baked. But unlike a gratin, which is lightly browned on top and creamy soft all the way through, pommes Anna emerges from the oven with a tender, slippery interior and a crunchy golden crust. It is a gorgeous contrast in textures. To make it, the potatoes are trimmed into cylinders (to ensure a neat and attractive shape), sliced and then layered into a skillet sizzling with clarified butter. The potatoes are first cooked on top of the stove, to sear and brown them on the bottom, then moved to the oven to bake until the slices in the center turn soft. After baking, the pan is inverted onto a platter and presented as a stunning, burnished cake of crunchy potato petals. You can dress up the basic recipe with an array of aromatics, cheeses and other vegetables. (Here, we've added an optional touch of garlic for a sweetly pungent contrast to the mild potatoes.) But pommes Anna doesn't need it. The simple flavor of potato and butter is always a comfort, but the interplay of crisp and soft in this dish elevates it to another plane. 'Harvesting Potatoes During the Flood of the Rhine in 1852' by Gustave Brion (1824-1877). RMN-Grand Palais/Art Resource, NY Pommes Anna was created in the mid-19th century by the chef Adolphe Dugléré at Café Anglais in Paris. It was most likely named after Anna Deslions, one of the café's grandes cocottes, who is said to have entertained an international coterie of princes and other dignitaries in a private salon above the dining room. It's telling that the dish was named for a glamorous courtesan. At that time, the potato still had a somewhat shady reputation among the French, having been considered poisonous for centuries after its introduction to Europe. It seemed delectable, yet just a little bit dangerous. Potatoes arrived in France in the 16th century via the Spanish, who encountered them in what is now Colombia. The combination of the Northern French climate and the varieties of potato that were imported produced sad, watery tubers, thought to be toxic and unfit for human consumption. As late as 1748, potatoes were outlawed as crops in Paris. Because of their resemblance to the twisted limbs of lepers, the tubers were believed to cause the disease. This began to change in the late 18th century through the efforts of Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, a French army officer who developed a taste for potatoes in a Prussian jail in Hamburg, where he was held captive after the Seven Years War. Once he returned to France, Parmentier persuaded King Louis XVI to embrace the potato, both as a delicacy for the court when dressed up with cream and butter, and as cheap, reliable food for the poor when made into soups and gruels. This is why his name is linked to several French potato dishes, including hachis Parmentier, a baked dish of minced meat and mashed potatoes, and potage Parmentier, a puréed leek and potato soup. Over the next centuries, potato preparations flourished, and potatoes soon became a necessary accompaniment to roasts, stews and sautéed dishes across the French repertoire de cuisine. Today, pommes Anna is considered to be among the finest of all French potato dishes, one skillful cooks take pride in making. Mandoline : This very sharp slicing tool allows you to cut potatoes thinly and evenly. There's no need to buy a pricey, stainless-steel model; an inexpensive plastic mandoline is fine and can go in the dishwasher. A sharp chef's knife will get the job done, but a mandoline is made for this task. Wirecutter, a product recommendations website owned by The New York Times Company, has a guide to the best mandolines . Skillets : Traditionally, pommes Anna is cooked in a copper pan made specifically for that purpose. A skillet, either well-seasoned cast-iron or heavy-duty nonstick, works just as well (or perhaps even better). Use one with a tightfitting cover. You'll also need a slightly smaller skillet or a saucepan for pressing down the potatoes, which helps compress the cake and cook it evenly. Rimmed baking sheet : It's a good idea to place the skillet on a baking sheet before transferring it to the oven; it promotes even browning of the potatoes and catches any sizzling butter overflow. Offset spatula: A small metal offset spatula, which has a long, thin, blunt blade (it is often used for frosting cakes), will help you remove the potatoes from the pan easily and in one piece. If you don't have one, use the smallest spatula you have, or a butter knife. A crisp, savory cake of thinly sliced potatoes arranged in circular layers and coated with butter. By Meg Felling What sets pommes Anna apart from other fried potato recipes is the refinement of its technique. All the tiny details, from the potatoes themselves to the way you slice them, may seem like a lot to absorb, but understanding them is essential to success. For the potatoes, you can use either waxy boiling potatoes or starchy baking potatoes, depending on the texture you're after. Or, if you'd like, you can use a combination of the two. Julia Child recommends waxy, low-starch boiling potatoes, such as round white potatoes, red potatoes or Yukon golds. When you use these, the potato slices remain in distinct coins as opposed to merging into a uniform cake. These slippery potato pieces make it harder to cut through the cake neatly after unmolding. It can easily fall apart. But the buttery flavor and satiny texture of the waxy potatoes are marvelous, making up for the precarious presentation. Russet baking potatoes make for a more compact cake; the starchy potato slices glue themselves into a uniform disk , one that slices into neat wedges. Texturally, the cake will have a crisp exterior with a mashed-potato-like heart. Because of their oblong shape, Russets are easier to work with than round potatoes, and you'll have less waste. Use good butter: European-style butter with a high fat content (at least 82 percent) works best here because it contains less moisture than regular butter. You can make pommes Anna with regular butter, but it really is worth the few extra minutes it takes to make clarified butter first . It can take the heat for longer and at higher temperatures than butter that has not been clarified, so it will be less likely to burn. If you don't want to clarify your butter, use a combination of oil and regular butter instead. You will end up with a more neutral and less buttery flavor, but the recipe will still work. (If you decide not to clarify, then it is especially important to use that high-fat, European-style butter.) Or you could use ghee, which is basically clarified butter in which the milk solids have been allowed to brown before being removed. It has a lightly caramelized, nutty flavor. How to use a mandolin when making the French classic pommes Anna. By Alexandra Eaton You need to trim the potatoes so they are about uniform in size, but don't obsess over it. Using a paring or chef's knife, remove the ends from each potato, then trim the sides so you end up with cylinders. It may seem like a lot of waste, especially if you are using round boiling potatoes, as opposed to oblong baking potatoes. But you can use the trimmings in mashed potatoes or soups. If you'd like, skip all the trimming and merely peel the potatoes . You won't get as nice a presentation when you unmold the cake, but if that doesn't bother you, you will save yourself a lot of work. The beauty of a mandoline is that it gives you very thin and even slices of potato, and does so very quickly. (In this recipe, you are aiming for pieces that are 1/8-inch thick.) Take extreme care when using a mandoline. The blade is sharp, and your hand is moving quickly; it is easy to slice your finger. It's best to use the protective hand guard or gloves (the mesh gloves meant for shucking oysters work well). Once you have sliced the potatoes, it is essential to dry them so they don't stick to the pan. To do so, place the slices between paper towels on a counter and press slightly. Let them sit in the open air and dry, about 5 to 10 minutes. (One way to save time is to let them sit out while you clarify the butter.) Never rinse the potato slices. It removes their starch, which is what helps them bind together into a cake. Assembling pommes Anna. By Alexandra Eaton Before you begin layering the potatoes into the hot skillet, take a moment to place a baking sheet in the oven and preheat it. Later, you can place the skillet with the potatoes directly on the sheet, which will distribute the heat more evenly and catch any stray splashes of butter. Do not worry about forming a perfect circle of overlapping potatoes; it will look stunning even if a potato or two is not exactly aligned. Take care when adding the sliced potatoes to the hot butter. It can splatter and burn you. As long as you keep the pan at medium heat and add the slices quickly, you should be fine. For a compact cake with uniform thickness, use a second skillet or large saucepan to press down on the potatoes. Choose one that is large enough to cover most of the potatoes, and butter the bottom of the pan. Press down on the potatoes twice: once before the pan is transferred to the oven, and again after 20 minutes of baking. Remember what you're looking for: a brown, crisp bottom in the pan. (The cake is flipped out of the pan, so the bottom will become the top.) Be careful that the bottom does not get too dark; you can peek, lifting up the cake slightly with an offset spatula or butter knife. You also want all of the potatoes to be cooked through, but to maintain a bit of texture (they should not be completely mushy or too soft to the touch). The top does not need to be golden as long as the potatoes are cooked through. How to serve pommes Anna. By Alexandra Eaton Unmold the potatoes by running a spatula around the pan rim. Try to get the spatula under the potatoes, too, making sure they are not stuck to the bottom of the pan. Once you feel confident the potatoes can unmold, quickly turn the baking dish over onto a large serving platter. Or, if it makes you feel more comfortable, you can put a serving platter on top of the pan, and flip the pan over so the potato cake falls onto the platter. (Use oven mitts; the pan will be hot.) If some potato slices stick, remove them with the spatula and place them on top of the cake. If the dish looks like a disaster, follow Julia Child's advice: Cover the cake with grated Gruyère, Parmesan or Cheddar cheese, dot with another spoonful of butter, then brown for a few seconds under the broiler. The cheese will mask any imperfections. You can make pommes Anna up to 4 hours ahead. After draining the excess butter from the pan and unmolding the cake, flip it back in the pan and cover it. Then gently place over a very low flame to crisp up again and reheat before serving. Served plain, without embellishment, pommes Anna is a stunning dish. But after mastering its most basic form, you can take liberties with the recipe, adding cheeses, herbs and spices, and other vegetables. Adding cheese gives you a more intensely flavored dish with a melting, gooey center. And if you're using low-starch potatoes like all-purpose white or Yukon gold, the cheese acts as an adhesive, helping to glue the cake together. Add 6 ounces Gruyère, Cheddar or Emmental cheese, grated, along with (or instead of) the garlic. Make sure the cheese doesn't touch the bottom or sides of the pan or it can burn. You can also experiment with crumbled feta, blue cheese or goat cheese. Potatoes aren't the only vegetable that you can prepare in this fashion — other root vegetables and squashes will also work. Be sure to choose vegetables with a low moisture content so you get a crisp, browned exterior. Try sweet potatoes, turnips, winter squash, beets or rutabaga instead of (or in combination with) regular potatoes. For a bolder take on pommes Anna, substitute a thinly sliced shallot for the garlic, or add it along with the garlic. Ditto a sliced chile. You could also add a few tablespoons of chopped fresh herbs, such as tarragon, thyme, rosemary, sage or chives, or a dusting of nutmeg, cinnamon, cumin, fennel or other spices. Sprinkle herbs and spices on top of each layer of potatoes along with the salt and pepper.
New York Times
28-03-2025
- General
- New York Times
How to Make Tagine
Learn the history and the techniques that make up the basis of this classic North African dish. A Moroccan dish, tagine merges sweet and savory flavors. Francesco Tonelli for The New York Times Published March 28, 2025 Updated March 28, 2025 [This article was originally published on Feb. 14, 2017.] Revered for its balance of sweet and savory flavors, the tagine journeyed from North Africa to France, a link to the country's colonial past. The fragrant stew gradually found its way into home kitchens. This guide is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, the 10 definitive dishes every modern cook should master. Tagine isn't part of the codified French cuisine, nor is it something you'll find at traditional French restaurants, either in France or abroad. But given the estimated five million people of North African descent who live in France, and the excellence of the dish — soft chunks of meat, vegetables or a combination, deeply scented with spices and often lightly sweetened with fruit — it is no surprise that tagine has taken hold. The dish exemplifies a modern wave of French home cooking, one that is exploring a host of diverse influences. Perhaps one reason the tagine has taken hold in France is that the dish is very similar to a French ragout, a slowly simmered stew of meat and vegetables. But while a ragout nearly always calls for a significant amount of wine (and often broth), to help braise the meat, a tagine needs very little additional liquid. This is because of the pot — also called a tagine — used to prepare the dish. With its tightfitting, cone-shaped lid, a tagine steams the stew as it cooks, catching the rising, aromatic vapor and allowing it to drip back over the ingredients, thereby bathing them in their own juices. (A Dutch oven with a tightfitting lid will accomplish nearly the same thing.) The intensity of the spicing also sets the tagine apart from a ragout, which tends to use aromatics rather than ground spices for flavor. But a heady mix of spices, called ras el hanout, is at the heart of a good tagine. In North Africa, each cook traditionally makes his or her own often highly complex spice blend. In our tagine recipe, we use a very simple mixture of spices that are easy to find. Cooks preparing a tagine usually strive for a balance of sweet and savory. That is why you see spices like ginger, cinnamon or clove used to bring out the sweetness of the meat, alongside braised fruit (apricots, prunes or raisins) and savory seasonings (parsley, pepper or saffron). The dish is usually served with flatbread for dipping in the complex and fragrant sauce. Above, a man holding up a tagine at a Moroccan pottery stall in 1933. SSPL/Getty Images The tagine is a Moroccan dish, though it is common throughout the North African region known as the Maghreb, which also includes Algeria and Tunisia. The earliest versions, recorded in the 10th century, represent the intersection of two cultures: those of the native Berbers and of the Muslim Arabs of the conquest. When the spices of the Middle East met the stews of the Indigenous Berber cuisine, the tagine was born. Those spices and tastes had entered Middle Eastern cuisine with the spread of Islam across the broader region, which absorbed the flavors of its expanding territories. In the seventh century, as the capital of the Muslim Caliphate moved from Mecca to Damascus, Muslims met Greeks and Romans, Egyptians, Persians and Franks across the Arabian desert. Cinnamon and cardamom were added to the pantry. In the eighth century, the capital moved again, this time to Baghdad, and by the ninth century, the cuisine had become saturated with spices and full of elaborate and highly embellished dishes. It was common among the wealthy to use at least two dozen different spices and half a dozen herbs in one dish, not to mention dried fruit, nuts, honey, flowers and perfumed essences, like orange blossom water. Those ingredients gradually found their way to the Maghreb, heavily influencing the local cuisine, including what would become the tagine. Although contemporary North African cooking is somewhat stripped down from its ornate past, many of those perfumed, spiced and honeyed flavors remain. Food from the Maghreb first surfaced in France in the mid-19th century, after France conquered Algeria in 1830, later annexing Tunisia and Morocco. French domination of the region lasted until 1955, when Morocco gained independence, followed by Tunisia in 1956 and Algeria in 1962. The cuisine truly gained a foothold in France during the immigration surge of the 1970s, when the French government admitted large numbers of North Africans, who settled in subsidized housing in banlieues (suburbs). Restaurants serving tagines and couscous started popping up in and around large cities in France, particularly Paris and Marseille. And the spicy lamb sausages called merguez were turned into a street food snack, stuffed into a baguette and topped with French fries (known as merguez frites). As the French developed a taste for North African food (which is called cuisine Maghrébin), chefs and cookbook authors began translating the recipes, and cooks flocked to the kitchen. Tagine or Dutch oven . A tagine is the traditional clay cooking vessel for the dish; it has a base that is wider than its tall, cone-shape top. But you don't need a tagine to make this recipe. Use a Dutch oven or another lidded pot instead, as long as the lid fits tightly. If it doesn't, cover the pot with foil before placing the lid on top. Tongs . A tagine, like most braises, starts with the browning of the meat. A good pair of tongs will help you maneuver the lamb as you sear it in the pot. Small skillet. Sliced almonds, which are used in the topping, will toast quickly and evenly in a small skillet. Choose a heavy-duty one so you won't get a hot spot, which could burn the nuts. Wirecutter, a product recommendations website owned by The New York Times Company, has a guide to the best Dutch ovens and nonstick pans . A fragrant North African stew of spiced meat, vegetables and dried fruit, named for the dish in which it is traditionally cooked. By Meg Felling The gorgeous aromas and flavors of a tagine are what set it apart from all other stews. Choose and use your spices with care, and take time to fully brown the meat. Fresh spices are integral to getting an intensely flavored sauce. To tell if your spices are fresh, smell them. Empty a bit into the palm of your hand; if it isn't noticeably fragrant, then it won't add noticeable flavor to the tagine. If you are pressed for time and have only stale spices, add a little more than what the recipe calls for. It is often more economical to shop at a spice retailer. They tend to grind the spices more frequently on site, which means that they are not only fresher when you buy them, will also last longer in your pantry. Some recipes use ras el hanout, a North African spice mix that contains black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, clove, coriander, cumin, mace, paprika and turmeric, among other spices. Each mix is different and contains up to 30 different spices. Here, we make our own simplified version. Do not substitute another ras el hanout blend for our mixture; each blend is unique and can be quite different, so it may not work well in this recipe. (Most Moroccan cookbooks give their own instructions for ras el hanout, and then tailor their recipes to it.) Toasting the spices adds yet another layer of flavor. Both ground cinnamon and cinnamon sticks are used in our recipe. They have slightly different flavors and work together for a more nuanced cinnamon taste in both the meat and the sauce. The contrast of sweet and savory is a hallmark of North African cuisine. Tagine recipes commonly include some kind of dried fruit to supply that sweetness. Here, we use apricots, which are tart as well as sweet. Raisins, prunes and dates are other options. Taking a moment to cook the tomato paste in oil before adding liquid caramelizes the paste, enriching its flavor. It also rids the tomato paste of any metallic taste, which can be a problem with canned paste. Adding half the herbs at the beginning of cooking and half at the end gives the tagine both depth of flavor and a pop of freshness. Personalize this recipe to suit your tastes. Use bone-in beef instead of lamb for a less gamy and slightly sweeter flavor. (Beef can have more fat, so make the tagine a day ahead, chill it, then remove excess fat from the surface.) Swap in raisins, prunes or dates for the apricots. Chunks or slices of winter squash lend a delicate, velvety sweetness; add them during the last 45 minutes of cooking, along with a few tablespoons of water if the pot looks dry. How to brown meat when creating a lamb tagine. By Alexandra Eaton Bone-in lamb gives this tagine a rich sauce, thanks to the marrow content of the bones, along with plenty of soft, succulent meat. Lamb neck, if you can get it, is particularly juicy. Salting the lamb ahead of time helps the seasoning penetrate the meat , flavoring it thoroughly. While even an hour makes a difference, if you have time, you can salt the meat up to 24 hours ahead. Browning the meat gives the sauce a deeper flavor. Take your time doing this. Let each piece brown fully on all sides, and use tongs to hold up the meat if necessary, to brown the irregularly shaped pieces. Serving the tagine. By Alexandra Eaton Tagines are generally served with flatbread for dipping in all the lovely sauce. You can use any type of flatbread — pita bread works nicely — served either at room temperature or warmed up so it is pliable. If you warm the bread, keep it wrapped in a clean cloth so it retains the heat. You can also serve your tagine with couscous, either on the side or spread in a shallow platter with the tagine poured on top. Polenta is another good, though unorthodox, option. There are countless tagine variations, with cooks personalizing the recipe to suit their tastes. Feel free to come up with your own combinations. Use beef instead of lamb for a less gamy and slightly sweeter flavor. Choose bone-in cuts such as shanks or short ribs. Beef can have a higher fat content than lamb, so if you do make the substitution, cook the tagine the day before serving, then scoop off the fat from the surface before reheating. You can use any dried fruit here instead of apricots. Sweet jammy dates are a more intensely sugary substitute, and they are highly traditional. Golden raisins are a more tart option. Figs, prunes and dark raisins can also be used. Feel free to add vegetables to the tagine if you like. Chunks or slices of winter squash, either peeled or not, lend a delicate, velvety sweetness. Other options include eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes. Add them to the pot during the last 45 minutes of cooking, along with a few tablespoons of water if the pot looks dry when you put them in.
New York Times
28-03-2025
- General
- New York Times
Our Ultimate Guide to Making Cassoulet
The humble meat and bean stew is a classic for a reason. Cassoulet is a project, but the reward is a rustically charming dish that lasts for days. Francesco Tonelli for The New York Times Published March 28, 2025 Updated March 28, 2025 [This article was originally published on Feb. 13, 2017.] Cassoulet is one of the most magnificent examples of French home cooking. The sumptuous meat and bean casserole is not as refined as some of the fussier dishes of haute cuisine, but what it lacks in opulence it makes up for in rustic charm. This guide is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, the 10 definitive dishes every modern cook should master. Francesco Tonelli for The New York Times We may think of it as decadent, but cassoulet is at heart a humble bean and meat stew, rooted in the rural cooking of the Languedoc region. But for urban dwellers without access to the staples of a farm in southwest France — crocks of rendered lard and poultry fat, vats of duck confit, hunks of meat from just-butchered pigs and lambs — preparing one is an epic undertaking that stretches the cook. The reward, though, may well be the pinnacle of French home cooking. Cassoulet does take time to make: there is overnight marinating and soaking, plus a long afternoon of roasting and simmering, and a few days on top of that if you make your own confit. However, it is also a relatively forgiving dish, one that welcomes variation and leaves room for the personality of the cook — perhaps more than any other recipe in the canon. As long as you have white beans slowly stewed with some combination of sausages, pork, lamb, duck or goose, you have a cassoulet. The hardest part about making a cassoulet when you're not in southwest France is shopping for the ingredients. This isn't a dish to make on the fly; you will need to plan ahead, ordering the duck fat and confit and the garlic sausage online or from a good butcher, and finding sources for salt pork and fresh, bone-in pork and lamb stew meat. The beans, though, aren't hard to procure. Great Northern and cannellini beans make fine substitutes for the Tarbais, flageolet and lingot beans used in France. Then give yourself over to the rhythm of roasting, sautéing and long, slow simmering. The final stew, a glorious pot of velvety beans and chunks of tender meat covered by a burnished crust, is well worth the effort. 'The Kitchen Table' by Jean-Siméon Chardin (1699-1779). Gift of Mrs. Peter Chardon Brooks, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Named for the cassole, the earthenware pot in which it is traditionally cooked, cassoulet evolved over the centuries in the countryside of southwest France, changing with the ingredients on hand and the cooks stirring the pot. The earliest versions of the dish were most likely influenced by nearby Spain, which has its own ancient tradition of fava bean and meat stews. As the stew migrated to the Languedoc region, the fava beans were replaced by white beans, which were brought over from the Americas in the 16th century. Although there are as many cassoulets as there are kitchens in the Languedoc, three major towns of the region — Castelnaudary, Carcassonne and Toulouse — all vigorously lay claim to having created what they consider to be the only true cassoulet. It is a feud that has been going on at least since the middle of the 19th century, and probably even longer. In 1938, the chef Prosper Montagné, a native of Carcassonne and an author of the first version of 'Larousse Gastronomique,' attempted to resolve the dispute. He approached the subject with religious zeal, calling cassoulet 'the god of Occidental cuisine' and likening the three competing versions to the Holy Trinity. The cassoulet from Castelnaudary, which is considered the oldest, is the Father in Montagné's trinity, and is made from a combination of beans, duck confit and pork (sausages, skin, knuckles, salt pork and roasted meat). The Carcassonne style is the Son, with mutton and the occasional partridge stirred in. And the version from Toulouse, the Holy Spirit, was the first to add goose confit to the pot. The recipe for cassoulet was codified by the 'États Généraux de la Gastronomie ' in 1966, and it was done in a way that allowed all three towns to keep their claims of authenticity. The organization mandated that to be called cassoulet, a stew must consist of at least 30 percent pork, mutton or preserved duck or goose (or a combination of the three elements), and 70 percent white beans and stock, fresh pork rinds, herbs and flavorings. That settled the question of which meats to use. But there are two other main points of contention that still inspire debate: the use of tomatoes and other vegetables with the beans, and a topping of bread crumbs that crisp in the oven. Julia Child chose to do both, as we do here. 'The Escoffier Cookbook' and 'Larousse Gastronomique' give some recipes that include the tomatoes, vegetables and bread crumbs, and some that omit them. The beauty of it is that if you make your own cassoulet, you get to decide. A casserole of aromatic beans baked slowly alongside cured and roasted meats, topped with crisp bread crumbs. By Meg Felling Casserole dish . You will need a deep casserole dish that holds at least eight quarts, or a large Dutch oven, to bake the cassoulet. If you use a Dutch oven, you won't need the cover. The cassoulet needs to bake uncovered to develop a crisp crust. Baking sheets . All of the ingredients for a cassoulet are cooked before being combined and baked again. The meat can be cooked in any number of ways; here, the pork and lamb stew meat is roasted on rimmed baking sheets so that it browns. Large pot. The beans and garlic sausage (or kielbasa) are cooked in a large pot before they are added to the casserole, though you could use a slow cooker or pressure cooker, if you have one. You will also need a second small pot for simmering the salt pork. Wirecutter, a product recommendations website owned by The New York Times Company, has guides to the best Dutch ovens and baking sheets . The hardest part of making a cassoulet may be obtaining the ingredients. Beyond that, it helps to think of cooking and building it in stages. Once you've gathered and prepared the components (the meat, beans, salt pork, sausage, duck confit and bread crumb topping), assembling the dish is just a matter of layering the elements. You can use any kind of roasted meats for a cassoulet , and the kinds vary by region. Substitute roasted chicken, turkey or goose for the duck confit, bone-in beef for the lamb and bone-in veal for the pork. Lamb neck is a great substitute for the bone-in lamb stew meat, and you can use any chunks of bone-in pork, like pork ribs, in place of the pork stew meat. (The bones give the dish more flavor, and their gelatin helps thicken the final stew.) Do not use smoked sausages in the beans, or substitute smoked bacon for the salt pork. The smoky flavor can overwhelm the dish, and it is not traditional in French cassoulets. If you can't find salt pork, pancetta will work in its place, and you won't need to poach it beforehand. You can buy duck confit at gourmet markets or order it online. If you'd prefer to make it yourself, this is how to do it: Rub 4 fresh duck legs with a large pinch of salt each. Place in a dish and generously sprinkle with whole peppercorns, thyme sprigs and smashed, peeled garlic cloves. Cover and let cure for 4 to 24 hours in the refrigerator. When ready to cook, wipe the meat dry with paper towels, discarding the garlic, pepper and herbs. Place in a Dutch oven or baking dish and cover completely with fat. (Duck fat is traditional, but olive oil also works.) Bake in a 200-degree oven until the duck is tender and well browned, 3 to 4 hours. Let duck cool in the fat before refrigerating. Duck confit lasts for at least a month in the refrigerator and tastes best after sitting for 1 week. Don't think the meat is the only star of this dish. The beans need just as much love. You want them velvety, sitting in a trove of tomato, stock and rich fat. Buy the best beans you can, preferably ones that have been harvested and dried within a year of cooking. The variety of white bean is less important than their freshness. Bread crumbs aren't traditional for cassoulet, but will result in a topping with an especially airy and crisp texture. Regular dried bread crumbs, either bought or homemade, will also work. When you roast the meat, leave plenty of space between the chunks of meat so they brown nicely. More browning means richer flavor. You can also use leftover roasted meat if you have them on hand. The bouquet garni flavors both the beans and the bean liquid, which is used to moisten the cassoulet as it bakes. To make one, take sprigs of parsley and thyme and a bay leaf and tie them together with at least 1 foot of kitchen string. Tuck the bay leaf in the middle of the bouquet and make sure you wrap the herbs up thoroughly, several times around, so they don't escape into the pot. Feel free to use a slow cooker or pressure cooker for the beans. Add the garlic sausage (or kielbasa) about halfway through the cooking time. It doesn't have to be exact, since the sausage is already cooked; you're adding it to flavor the beans and their liquid. Use a very large skillet, at least 12 inches, for sautéing the sausages and finishing the beans before you layer them into the casserole dish. In this recipe, the beans are finished in a tomato purée, which reduces and thickens the sauce of the final cassoulet. But you can substitute a good homemade stock for the purée. You'll get a soupier cassoulet, but it's just as traditional without the tomatoes. How to layer meat at the bottom of a Dutch oven. By Alexandra Eaton The salt pork is layered in strips into the bottom of the baking dish. Then, while cooking, it crisps and turns into a bottom crust for the stew. So it is important to slice it thinly and carefully place it in a single layer on the bottom of the dish (and up the sides, if you have enough). Don't overlap it very much, or those parts won't get as crisp. The reserved bean liquid is added to the cassoulet for cooking, and its starchiness is what keeps the stew thick and creamy. Using stock instead would make for a soupier but still delicious cassoulet. You create a substantial top crust with crunch by repeatedly cracking the very thick layer of bread crumbs as the cassoulet cooks, and by drizzling the topping with bean liquid, which browns and crisps up in the heat. It's best to crack the topping in even little taps from the side of a large spoon. You are looking to create more texture and crunch by exposing more of the bread crumbs to the hot oven and bean liquid, which should be drizzled generously and evenly. If you like you can skip the bread crumbs entirely, which is just as traditional. The top will brown on its own, but there won't be a texturally distinct crust. You do not have to make the cassoulet all in one go. You can break up the work, cooking the separate elements ahead of time and reserving them until you are ready to layer and bake the cassoulet. Or assemble the cassoulet in its entirety ahead of time, without bread crumbs, and then top and bake just before serving.
New York Times
28-03-2025
- General
- New York Times
Our Ultimate Guide to Making Coq au Vin
From history to technique, Melissa Clark will walk you through everything you need to know about the French classic. Francesco Tonelli for The New York Times Published March 28, 2025 Updated March 28, 2025 [This article was originally published on Feb. 14, 2017.] Where would French cuisine be without wine? It is as important in the pot as it is in the glass, the base of myriad stews and braises. One of the best is coq au vin, in which chicken is slowly simmered with red wine. This guide is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, the 10 definitive dishes every modern cook should master. Braising chicken in wine is an age-old tradition, and a method used all over France. You brown the meat, add liquid to the pot, be it water, wine or stock, and then set it over low heat for a lengthy simmer. That initial browning creates the foundation of the sauce, lending complex layers of flavor to the final dish. In a traditional coq au vin , which hails from the Burgundy region, wine is used both to tenderize what was traditionally a tough old rooster (a coq in French) and to imbue the meat with its heady flavor. When the bird is slowly simmered, often for hours and hours as the oldest recipes suggest, its sinewy flesh slackens, growing soft and aromatic, and easily yielding to the fork. As the simmering wine seasons the chicken, the chicken seasons the wine, helping transform it into a savory sauce. The wine, which reduces as it cooks, also takes on the other flavors in the pot, in this case brandy, mushrooms, onions, bacon and herbs, along with the savory fond — that is, the caramelized bits on the bottom of the pan that you get from the initial browning of the chicken. The young, tender chickens of today cook more quickly than those earlier birds, but they are imbued with similar lusty flavors. There are variations of coq au vin all over France, each a celebration of local wines both red and white. In Alsace, a dry riesling is used, resulting in a lighter, brighter sauce that is often enriched with a little cream or crème fraîche stirred in at the end. The Jura and the Champagne regions also have their own recipes; cooks in the Jura sometimes substitute morels for the more common white or brown button mushrooms. In Beaujolais, the young dark purple nouveau wine gives that dish the name coq au violet. But Burgundy's version, made with its local wine, is the best known across France and all over the world. No matter what kind of wine you pour into your pot, the method of simmering it with chicken or other meat is applicable across the kitchen. Case in point: Boeuf bourguignon, another French classic, is essentially coq au vin made with chunks of stewing beef instead of fowl. Mastering this one technique leads to many excellent dinners. 'Still Life' by Jacopo da Empoli (1551-1640). Scala/Ministero per i Beni e le Attività culturali/Art Resource, NY Legend has it that Julius Caesar himself introduced a version of coq au vin to France. As the commonly cited (and thoroughly apocryphal) story goes, the Celtic Gauls sent a rooster to Caesar during the Roman occupation. Caesar had his cook stew it in herbs and Roman wine and then returned it to the Gauls. Whether or not this is true, the tradition of simmering poultry in wine does indeed date to ancient Rome, and perhaps even further back. Because the main ingredient of a coq au vin was historically a tough old rooster, it is very likely that the earliest versions were peasant fare. Recipes calling for rooster rarely graced the early tracts on French cooking in the 17th and 18th centuries, which documented food for the wealthy. It wasn't until the more current substitution of tender chicken in the 19th century that the dish and all its variations entered the French canon. That the Burgundian version emerged as the most prominent in the United States is because of Julia Child, who championed the recipe as a symbol of the sophistication and verve of French country cooking. Dutch oven : A 6- to 8-quart Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot with lid (a rondeau pot) is an essential tool for a braise. If the pot is too small, the liquid won't evaporate enough to give you a rich sauce; if it's too large, the wine in the pot won't sufficiently cover the chicken. Skillet : The pearl onions and mushrooms for the topping are cooked separately from the chicken, so they have their own distinct flavor and texture. A 10-inch skillet with a lid is ideal. Tongs: A good pair of kitchen tongs will help you maneuver the chicken as you brown it, allowing you to fully sear the skin all over. Wirecutter, a product recommendations website owned by The New York Times Company, has a guide to the best Dutch ovens and nonstick pans . Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. You want to build flavor in the pan at every step, which enriches the sauce and gives it body. That begins with the meat, which should be seared deeply to create a brawny base. How to brown chicken when making coq au vin. By Alexandra Eaton Using only bone-in dark meat makes the stew richer and thicker, because of the marrow in the bones. And dark meat isn't as prone to drying out as white meat. However, it is traditional to use a whole chicken, cut into pieces, and you can do that if you'd prefer; just add the breast to the pot 30 minutes after adding the dark meat. Marinating the chicken before browning it will give you a more evenly seasoned bird whose flesh is fully imbued with wine. The ideal marination time is 24 hours, but even four to six hours helps the cause. To get a good sear, the chicken must be fully dry. Otherwise, moisture will steam the skin instead of browning it. Pat it well with paper towels after marinating. Take your time when browning the meat; it's one of the most important steps for getting robust flavor out of the chicken, and creates a brawny base for the sauce. Plan to spend at least 15 to 25 minutes at the stove for this step, searing the pieces in batches. Use tongs to hold the chicken and change its position, pressing it into the pan when necessary, so that all sides make contact with the hot metal to get a deep sear. How to serve coq au vin. By Alexandra Eaton Some coq au vin recipes call for chicken stock to replace a portion of the wine , which accentuates meaty notes in the finished sauce. But this can dilute the wine flavor. The bacon and the searing of the chicken skin provide sufficient meatiness here, so this recipe omits the stock. Sautéing the tomato paste with the vegetables caramelizes the tomato. It also eliminates any metallic flavor, which can be an issue with canned tomato paste. Adding flour to the pot helps thicken the sauce. Here, it is stirred into the vegetables while they're browning, which allows the taste of raw flour to cook off. Brandy brings complexity to the final dish. Igniting the brandy in the pot is a quick way to cook out much of the alcohol, and it's easier than you think. Use a long-handled igniter or match to light the flame. It burns out pretty quickly, so there is not much to fear. However, you can skip this step and simply let the brandy cook down in the pan for 1 minute. Here, the wine is boiled down for about 12 minutes before the chicken is added to the pot. This makes for a more intense sauce without overcooking the chicken. One quick way to peel pearl onions for the topping is to blanch them for 1 minute in a pot of boiling water. Drain, let cool, then slip off their skins. (Frozen peeled onions tend to be very soggy, and therefore much harder to caramelize because of their high moisture content. Use them only as a last resort.) A garnish of crisp toasted bread provides a textural contrast to the soft chicken, but feel free to leave it out. Like all braises, coq au vin is best made a day ahead, so the flavors have a chance to intensify. Let it cool completely, then store it in the refrigerator. To reheat, first spoon off and discard any solidified fat on the surface, then place the pot over a low flame for about 20 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Or reheat it in a 350-degree oven for about 30 minutes. It's best to prepare the onions and mushrooms, and the croutons, just before serving. Serve with a green salad, and a good bottle of Burgundy. Christopher Testani for The New York Times
