Julia Child

Poulet Grillé à la Diable (Grilled Chicken With Mustard)

by Anne Maxfield on September 27, 2012

One of the reasons the Accidental Locavore loves to cook is because you get to try all the interesting recipes that cross your path. Often, the most difficult part is figuring out that age-old question, “what’s for dinner?” Today, I had an edge; Frank wanted chicken, roasted chicken, so I had the perfect excuse to pull out an old favorite Julia Child recipe for poulet grillé à la Diablo. It’s a recipe I used to make all the time, easy and tasty. It brings into play a little-used part of the oven, the broiler.

Poulet Grillé à la Diable (Grilled Chicken With Mustard)

Print recipe
Poulet Grillé à la Diable (Grilled Chicken With Mustard)
Serves 4
Prep time 15 minutes
Cook time 40 minutes
Total time 55 minutes
Meal type Main Dish
Region French
The Accidental Locavore revisits an old favorite chicken recipe from Julia Child:Poulet Grillé à la Diable. Main course chicken recipe.

Ingredients

  • 1 chicken about 4 pounds, halved or quartered (or use your favorite parts)
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • salt
  • 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
  • 2 tablespoons scallions or shallots, finely minced
  • 1/2 teaspoon thyme, rosemary or basil
  • pinch pepper
  • pinch cayenne pepper
  • 2 cups fresh bread crumbs (from white bread)

Directions

Step 1
Preheat the broiler to moderately high. Melt the butter with the olive oil in a small pan. Dry the chicken thoroughly and paint both sides with the butter mix. Put the chicken skin side down in the bottom of a broiler pan (without the rack). Place it so the chicken is about 5-6" away from the broiling element and cook for 10 minutes on each side, basting with the butter mix every 5 minutes. The chicken should be lightly browned.
Step 2
While the chicken is cooking, put the mustard, shallots, herbs, salt and peppers in a small bowl. Slowly pour the remainder of the butter into the mix, beating it well to emulsify it. When the chicken is done, add half of the fat from the pan, slowly beating into the mustard mix. Reserve the rest of the fat.
Step 3
Paint the chicken with the mustard mix. Pour the breadcrumbs into a wide shallow bowl, or plate. Roll the chicken in the crumbs, patting them so they'll adhere.
Step 4
Place the chicken, skin side down, on the broiling pan, this time with the rack in place. Drizzle with half the basting fat. Broil under moderately high heat for 10 minutes. Turn the pieces over and drizzle with the remaining fat. Cook for another 10 minutes or until the juices run clear when pricked with a fork. Serve and enjoy!
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My verdict: as good as I remember it being! This is definitely going back into rotation. Don’t worry if your broiler isn’t adjustable, many aren’t. Just keep an eye on the chicken and if it’s getting too brown too fast, lower the rack. I didn’t make homemade bread crumbs (sorry Julia), but substituted panko bread crumbs instead and they were great! I used some fresh basil as the herb. Julia doesn’t specify fresh or dried. My preference would have been for some fresh tarragon, but the amount is negligible, and used what I had fresh. Some dried herbs de Provence would be a fine substitute. Since the mustard is key here, try to use some good Dijon if you have it. This post might give you some mustard ideas. And yes, if you’re going to be picky, this is not technically roasted chicken…

 

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In Honor of Julia Child’s 100th Birthday…Hamburgers?

by Anne Maxfield on August 16, 2012

Accidental Locavore Julia Child

Quick now, name the best French meatballs you ever had.

The Accidental Locavore was thinking about the 100thanniversary of Julia Child’s  birthday and wondering what could be make with hamburger (since that was what was for dinner) that would be French. Other than steak tartare or bifteck haché (hamburger without the bun to you or me) not a whole lot comes to mind. In both volumes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, a mere three pages is devoted to hamburger (the ever-popular kidneys get six). Mind you, one of the recipes has the bifteck haché sautéed in butter and topped with cream sauce, but for the usually verbose Julia, hamburger goes virtually unmentioned.

Which got me to thinking, what do the French make with ground beef? For a cuisine that does really amazing things with leftover bits and pieces, ground meat of almost any kind rarely makes a solo appearance. Meatloaf quickly becomes pâté and is usually a pork or poultry product. According to my French friend, MC there are boulettes (meatballs) in the South and towards Alsace and she also mentioned hachis Parmentier, the French version of Shepherd’s Pie. However, a quick scan of all my Julia books fails to mention it, although according to Dorrie Greeenspan’s Around My French Table, it was a favorite of Daniel Boulud (but generally made with left-over beef).

Accidental Locavore French ChefBut back to Julia. Most people I know, grew up cooking with the Joy of Cooking, Fannie Farmer, or possibly Betty Crocker as their go-to cookbooks. When I went off to college, I was armed with Volume One and a Cuisinart, both of which I still use many (many) years later. At RISD, I would play with souffles, make a mean poulet grilles à la diable, learned hollandaise sauce and sole meunière from the book. Now, it’s my go-to for basics like coq au vin and anything else where I want to get a sense of what the “vrai” dish would be. It’s also interesting to see how some recipes transform from volume to volume. One of my early culinary disasters was the tarte tartin (upside-down apple tart)from Volume One. Later, in The Way to Cook (my personal favorite), it gets simplified/clarified and possibly because, according to Julia, it’s the ”definitive version” I haven’t ruined a skillet since then!

So, Happy 100th Julia! And even though you weren’t much help with the hamburger, thank you for being a major influence on how I cook today!

 

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Essentials: Cookbooks the Accidental Locavore Can’t Live Without

by Anne Maxfield on November 11, 2011

Accidental Locavore Essentials

A couple of weeks ago, the Accidental Locavore was talking about essential cookbooks. At that time I was thinking about them in terms of what a new cook would want, but what about the rest of us? Don’t you think it’s like movies–there are classics and then there are ones you can watch over and over? I would ask, if you were on a desert island what you would want, but there it would probably be a lot of BBQ books and 365 different ways to serve coconuts, right?

For the rest of us, location, time and space play a big part. Because of my farm-boxes, my country house has a lot more veggie-centric books than the city. Same for grilling and smoking. The biggest proof of essentialness might be owning more than one copy. Although each house has a copy of Gordon Hammersley’s Bistro Cooking, I’m not sure it’s essential (and the short ribs with Guiness and bacon is pretty much memorized). Rick Bayliss’s Mexican Everyday. There are a lot of great recipes in it and even better, they all can be prepared in 30 minutes or less. Julia, always Julia, for comfort if nothing else. And a basic, be it Mark Bittman, The Essential NY Times Cookbook (must be essential, it’s in the title) or the Joy of Cooking.

You might have noticed there’s no mention of anything Italian. It’s not that the Locavore is such a Francophile, I just don’t make that much Italian food and when I do, it’s mostly from memory. If I could find an essential Indian cookbook, that might go on the list, any suggestions? A Middle Eastern book could probably wrangle its way on, possibly Claudia Rodin’s A Book of Middle Eastern Food.

Accidental Locavore Charlie TrotterOne of the members of our Blogging Boomers Carnival, Katie, had to make the ruthless choice when she and her husband moved to Dubai (almost a desert island). Here’s what she chose and why: “Workin’,  More Kitchen Sessions with Charlie Trotter - love the way he melds the tastes together to achieve the ultimate meal – but this is maybe not for the inexperienced cook. Some of the recipes are rather time-consuming and intricate but I think they are well-explained and not too much to do. The Best Ever Vegetarian Cookbook by Nicola Graimes – picked this up on the sale rack at Barnes & Noble years ago and swear by it. Almost every recipe is awesome! Eat More Weigh Less by Dean Ornish, MD - I inherited this from someone I can’t remember but I love the use of herbs to create delicious vegetarian meals. All the Best Pasta Sauces by Joie Warmer -  a simple soft-cover book one of my daughters gave me because she didn’t want it. The VERY best sauces of all descriptions! Great Bowls of Fire by Jay Solomon - when we were first dating my then-future husband invited me to dinner to his house and proceeded to cook dinner – all in a microwave! When he later found out I had a reputation for being a fairly good cook, not to mention was once the owner of a very successful catering business, he was very chagrined! After we were married, I was surprised to find among his kitchen item this incredible book of amazing one pot meals from all over the world. They are really hot, spicy and delicious.”

But how much of this is a moot point? Do we even need cookbooks? Ah, that’s a blog for another day… Stay tuned!

And if you have any cookbooks you think are non-essential how about donating them to an incubator kitchen? Let me know and I’ll hook you up with the incubator.

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What Do You Think Are Essential Cookbooks?

by Anne Maxfield on October 28, 2011

Accidental Locavore Essential Cookbooks

Have you ever thought about the one or two cookbooks you use that are essential? The Accidental Locavore just got through reading Amanda Hesser’s piece in the NY Times, when my BFF asked me for a cookbook recommendation. She wants a good starter book for a friend who has just moved into her first apartment and I remembered the Times article.

When you read what other people consider crucial and you own the book, don’t you immediately want to run to the bookshelf and review it? I do. Case in point, Sunday Supper at Luques (gathering dust on my shelf), Amanda Hesser’s go-to for inspiration.  Just picking the book up reminded me why this is not on my hit parade. While it may sound petty, the Accidental Locavore hates cookbooks that are grouped by menus (come on, do you ever cook a whole menu?) instead of categories (like soup, salad, etc.) and isn’t fond of books that are arranged by seasons. This may sound crazy for someone who is focused on local and fresh, but what’s in season in LA is very different from NY (duh). Unfortunately for Sunday Supper, it (as the Brits would say) ticks both those boxes.

Accidental Locavore Julia & CraigMy answer to my BFF was either Julia Child’s The Way to Cook, Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything or The Essential New York Times Cookbook. Here’s why: Mastering the Art of French Cooking, while a masterpiece, is a very detailed book and, for a beginner, intimidating. The Way to Cook is more of a modern take, a lot less intimidating and has a good selection of recipes. It’s become my go-to when I’m looking for a classic French recipe (and then I flip back to Mastering for comparison).

As much as Mark Bittman can be a little annoying, How to Cook Everything, does give you good directions for cooking almost everything. When we got our house upstate and I was trying to figure out what basic cookbook I wanted to start the upstate collection with, that was the one I went to. The two most stained recipes? His buttermilk biscuits for strawberry shortcake and eggplant Parmesan.

And The Essential New York Times Cookbook? While I might not agree with Amanda Hesser’s fundamental cookbook list, I often find myself referring to the old Craig Claiborne version. It’s more interesting to me than the Joy of Cooking, which is comprehensive but rather ordinary.  I don’t own the new version, but from what I’ve seen of it, the reviews and what I know about Amanda, it’s a sure thing (and if anyone wants to give me a copy, feel free).

When the Locavore posted the cookbook question on Twitter, the response was fascinating.  My friend Serge, from Serevan, suggested Elizabeth David. Someone else was a fan of Ratio by Michael Rhulman (a book my father swears by) and a third favorite was The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. Here’s my question to you: what book would you recommend to a new cook? And what is the one that’s essential to you?

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