Review: French Cooking Class Recipes - April '01

[Peggy]

My CL Supper Group decided to have a French theme for our April dinner and we tried several of the recipes in the April issue. Here are our reviews and comments:

Coq au Vin - Excellent! This was the first time any of us had tried this so we don't have a "non-light" version to compare it to. However, this version was delicious. It was a time consuming recipe, with half of it being made a day ahead of time, but we felt it was worth the effort for a special occasion. We used chicken leg/thigh pieces instead of the whole chicken. The chicken and sauce had a very rich and smoky flavor (probably from the bacon). We served it with a bottle of French Cotes-du-Rhone wine and it was an excellent food/wine match.

Pommes Anna (Potatoes Anna) - This recipe also was very good. Along with others on the BB, we had trouble with the potatoes sticking to the pan. After a few attempts to invert them onto a plate, we sprinkled them with fresh parsley and served the potatoes in the pan right side up. Everyone liked these. Has any one tried the other Potatoes Anna recipe from a few months ago?? I would be interested in knowing how it compared to this one.

Artichoke-and Spinach Tian This dish was more contraversial. We cheated and used canned artichoke hearts to save time. (We reduced the cooking time to adjust for this change). Most people liked it, but didn't think it was over exciting. One husband raved about it.... The group consensus was about a 6/10.

Tarte aux Pommes (Apple Tart) We had some problems with the dough for the tart crust. Though we followed the instructions carefully, the dough just didn't want to cooperate. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/mad.gif It didn't roll out easily and we had barely enough to fold any over the apple slices. At one point we almost ran to the grocery store for a premade pie crust, but hung in there instead. The finished product was delicious. One change: we sprinkled the apples with cinnamon sugar instead of vanilla sugar. We served it warm with homemade vanilla ice cream. Doesn't get much better than that!! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/biggrin.gif

Those were the French cooking class recipes we tried at our dinner. I plan on making the Cotes de Porc and the Coquilles St. Jacques with Curry later this week. Any comments or suggestions on these??

Peggy

[Peggy]

Reporting back on the other two recipes I tried this week from this article.

Cotes de Porc - I used boneless sirloin pork chops instead of the bone-in loin chops. This recipe was very easy and the sauce was good...maybe alittle salty but otherwise fine. The hardest part was finding the cornichons! My quest took me to four grocery stores before I located them. I would say this recipe was good but not outstanding (6/10).

Coquilles St. Jacques with Curry - There was quite a bit of preparation and cooking time required for this dish... lots of steps and pans! I found some outstanding sea scallops and they weren't wasted on this recipe. We liked it (7/10), but it probably could have used alittle more seasoning. The cooking instructions for the scallops were perfect! Usually I tend to overcook them but the directions were just right. Will probably make again.

Has anyone tried the Baekeoffe (Alsatian Meat Stew)? It looks interesting but time consuming. I am also eyeing the Savory Onion Tart, but would love comments before I attempt it. Any other French cooks out there????

Peggy

[This message has been edited by Peggy (edited 04-12-2001).]

[mmkeim]

I made the onion tart on Sunday, it was very good. The onions took much longer than 20 minutes to cook though, probably double the time. My DH did not believe that there was only a bit of 1/2 & 1/2, it tasted much richer. We had it for leftovers on Tue and it held up very well, the crust did not get soggy.

Mary