Wells - Bistro Cooking

BISTRO

COOKING

BY PATRICIA WELLS

ASSISTED BY JUDY KLEIBER JONES

Workman Publishing, New York

Copyright 1989 by Patricia Wells
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproducedmechanically, electronically, or by any other means including photocopyingwithout written permission of the publishers. Published simultaneously in Canada by Thomas Allen & Son, Limited.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wells, Patricia.
Bistro cookbook / by Patricia Wells.
p. cm.
eISBN 9780761185123
1. Cookery, French. I. Title.

:Harlingue-ViolletKitchen.

Book illustrations by Jewell Homad
Jacket photo by Steven Rothfeld

Workman Publishing Company, Inc.
708 Broadway
New York, NY 10003

Appetizers, First Courses, and Palate Teasers

Soups of the Day

Market Basket Salads

Pastas

Seasonal Vegetables

Potatoes

Eggs, Cheese, Terrines, and Tarts

Fish and Shellfish

Poultry: Chicken, Duck, Guinea Hen, and Rabbit

Meats, Roasts, and Daily Specials

Homemade Desserts

Pastries, Bread Dough, Sauces, and Stocks

DEDICATION

To my mom and dad, Vera and Joe Kleiber, who taught me the lasting value of honest home cooking.

I ts amazing what open, warmhearted enthusiasm the word bistro generates. Over the years, I have rarely had to persuade friends to accompany me to a simple neighborhood restaurant, and at home there is always a horde of eager eaters ready to sample the latest roast chicken, potato gratin, or apple tart.

Throughout, many people have knowingly and unknowingly assisted me in my search for authentic bistro fare. Without the cooksladies like Marie-Antoninette Cartet (of Paris Cartet), Adrienne Biasin (of Paris Chez la Vieille), Marie-Louise Auteli (of Lyons Chez Tante Paulette), Marie-Claude Gracia (of La Belle Gasconne in Poudenas) and men like the late Antoine Magnin (of Paris LAmi Louis)there would not be a book. Thanks also to the bakers, the butchers, the merchants who added inspiration as well as recipes: I am especially grateful to Roland Henny, my butcher in Provence, who is always ready to share his vast creative talents with each and every customer. And thank you, Kermit Lynch, for helping me discover and better appreciate so many of the wonderful wines of France.

Likewise, it is my friends and editorsamong them Rita and Yale Kramer, Maggie and Al Shapiro, Susy Davidson, Catherine ONeill and Richard Reeves, Steven Rothfeld, Stuart McBride, Pamela Fiori, Malachy Duffy, Linda Wellswho over the years have accompanied me, encouraged me, allowed me to weave my work life and my play life into a most pleasurable existence.

In Paris, my assistants helped gather recipes from cooks, chefs, bakers, and restaurateurs, and tried to help me keep the ever-growing stacks of recipes, facts, quotes, and tidbits in some reasonable order. I want to thank Jane Sigal, Anne Trager, and Laura Washburn for their cheerful assistance.

Back in the U.S.A., others have worked to make sure that the recipes made sense to the home cook in America. For testing and retesting many of the recipes, I am sincerely grateful to my sister, Judy Kleiber Jones, and the friends from her weekly quilting/cooking/testing group in Ramsey, New Jersey, including Maureen Papola, Carol White, and Rose Anne Tockstein.

Likewise, thanks to Susan Herrmann Loomis, my longtime colleague and great friend, who spent many hours in her alley-cabin in Seattle, often coaxing scribbles into workable recipes, keeping me in line as far as fish and shellfish were concerned.

None of this could have happened without the insight, support, and encouragement of my publisher, Peter Workman, and my editor, Suzanne Rafer, who has so carefully tended toand mendedmy copy for years. Im beginning to lose count of the number of first editions and updates weve all been through together. Thanks also goes to Mardee Haiden Regan and Shawna McCarthy for their editorial work, and to Kathleen Herlihy-Paoli for the lovely design.

Finally I thank my parents, Vera and Joe Kleiber, for allowing me the freedom to develop as I desired, and my husband, Walter, for holding my hand all along the way.

I like to think that this book began to take form in the fall of 1979, when my husband, Walter, and I were vacationing in France. Walking the back streets of Lyons one evening, we wandered into a little restaurant around dinnertime.

We feasted on giant salads of curly endive tossed with chunks of bacon and coated with enough vinegar to make your mouth pucker and your eyes water. There was a golden roast chicken with the crispiest of skins, a meltingly tender potato gratin, carafes of chilled Beaujolais, and then a rich, dense chocolate mousse for dessert. Much of the food came to the table in giant white bowls, and there was a marvelous sense of generosity about it all. Although the menu was traditionally French, it could just as well have been prepared by my mother back in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, for it was all very familiar fare.

In retrospect I realize that it was the first of hundreds of authentic bistro meals to come.

We moved to Paris from New York a few months later, and restaurants big and small soon became the focus of my daily work, my passions, my life. At that time, nouvelle cuisine was all the rage and although we made regular pilgrimages to small, old-fashioned Parisian bistros such as LAmi Louis, we spent the bulk of our dining hours in the more elegant, upscale restaurants.

Times changed, tastes changed, and little by little we began to favor the smaller, less fashionable spots that served very simple, traditional French home cooking.

As I gathered material for my first two booksThe Food Lovers Guide to Paris and The Food Lovers Guide to FranceI was very conscious of the difference between luxury restaurants and small family affairs, and made a special effort to seek out the kind of restaurants we now all know as bistros.

So when Suzanne Rafer, my editor, called one gray winters day a few years back to say, Write us a bistro cookbook, my heart skipped a happy little beat. Before she could elaborate, my response was out. A big, positive Yes!

Quite unconsciously, Id been collecting information for this book for yearsinterviewing chefs and jotting down tips and recipes in their kitchens, noting the number of variations on the potato gratin,