Paula Wolfert: The Cooking of Southwest France

By JULIETTE ROSSANT In the introduction to the 2005 edition of her cookbook The Cooking of Southwest France: Recipes from France's Magnificent Rustic Cuisine (Wiley 2005), Paula Wolfert gives a brief list of the region's great ingredients: cheese, cepes, foie gras, truffles, confits, cassoulets, game birds, pork, lamb, beef, seafood, fish, and wine. (p. xv). My mouth was already watering! The introduction continues with descriptions of different areas of Southwest France. It includes a story about being invited to a local chateau where guests were gathered for a feast before a dawn hunt for stag. Another recounts a tour of the great chefs of the Southwest both in France and the US. Paula explains that while Nouvelle Cuisine was all the rage when she wrote the first edition in 1983, many of the recipes did not survive the test of time. Lucky for us, she has added 60 new recipes, 30 of which come from books of hers now out-of-print, and she has rewritten all the rest to include authentic ingredients nowadays available in the US. Paula has also broadened geographically: Revising this book, I decided to expand the borders of my own culinary Southwest, expanding north in the Charente, so I could include more Atlantic fish, towards the center into the Auvergne, so I could include Michel Bras and his inimitable Southwestern approach, and a bit further south in the Languedoc-Roussillon, to catch sight of the Mediterranean, my speciality. (p. xiv) In the first chapter, "The Tastes of the French Southwest" (pp. 1-40), Paula explores each ingredient from cepes (French wild mushrooms) and provides a simple recipe, like Cepe-Scented Oil (p. 7) to Bayonne Ham (p. 22). Then come more expansive, complex recipes, like Garbure, a time-consuming recipe that includes salt pork, beans, and cabbage (pp. 43-46) -- a study in the nature of soup. "Garbure is the very symbol of Bearnais Cookery," she writes and goes on to tell the story of a famous local cook and the duck confit she added to her Garbure. Hearty Pot-au-Feu recipes are included in this chapter, contrasted with an elegant Oyster Veloute with Black Caviar (p. 63), in which she includes a brief history of the Gironde River sturgeon (whose caviar is available from D'Artagnan). The chapter on Duck, Goose, and Rabbit not only includes precise recipes on how to make confit but also how to cook Muscovy or Moulard duck breasts in numerous ways. Then Paula includes a rare gem, a Goose Stew with Radishes (pp. 214-216), in which a goose breast is larded with Armagnac-soaked fat. She ends the chapter with a terrific recipe for Rillettes of Shredded Duck (pp. 249-250) -- one of my favorite Christmas treats. There is a whole chapter on Cassoulet (pp. 311-24) that starts with an essay on finding the best version of cassoulet. Whether you have the 1983 original or not, this new 2005 edition is a must for any cookbook library. Previous articles: [complete Cookbook Reviews] Book links: Publisher Amazon.com Technorati Tags: superchefblog, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, cookbooks --> back to superchefblog