RECIPES FROM JULIA CHILD (2024)

To celebrate the opening the new documentary Julia EatDrinkFilms is pleased to offer our readers four of Julia Child’s favorite recipes: Coq au Vin, Gratin Dauphinois and for dessert, La Tarte des Demoiselles Tatin. Plus one of her most famous dishes, Boeuf Bourguignon. We have some videos of Julia cooking on her own show and on David Letterman, the SNL spoof which Ms Child loved and more. Bon Appetit.

Julia opens exclusively in theaters throughout November, 2021. For more information go to the Official Website.

Read filmmaker Peter L. Stein’s “Messages From Julia.”

Master Chef Joyce Goldstein reviews JULIA in “It All Started With A Hot Plate.”

Julia enjoyed Dan Aykroyd’s parody of her demonstrating how to bone a chicken so much that she would play the tape at her own dinner parties.

Watch The French Chef make La Tarte if you are a PBS member or watch Amy Traverso making with a split screen of Julia preparing the La Tarte.

BOEUF BOURGUIGNON BOEUF A LA BOURGUIGNONNE

[Beef Stew in Red Wine, with Bacon, Onions, and Mushrooms]

As is the case with most famous dishes, there are more ways than one to arrive at a good boeuf bourguignon. Carefully done, and perfectly flavored, it is certainly one of the most delicious beef dishes concocted by man, and can well be the main course for a buffet dinner. Fortunately you can prepare it completely ahead, even a day in advance, and it only gains in flavor when reheated.

For 6 people

Ingredients

1 Tb olive oil or cooking oil

A slotted spoon

3 lbs. lean stewing beef cut into 2-inch cubes (see preceding list of cuts)

1 sliced carrot

1 sliced onion

1 tsp salt

1/4 A tsp pepper

2 Tb flour

3 cups of a full-bodied, young red wine such as one of those suggested for serving, or a Chianti

2 to 3 cups brown beef stock or canned beef bouillon

1 Tb tomato paste

2 cloves mashed garlic

1/2 tsp thyme

A crumbled bay leaf

The blanched bacon rind

18 to 24 small white onions, brown-braised in stock, recipe follows

1 1b. quartered fresh mushrooms sauteed in butter, recipe follows

Parsley sprigs

A 9- to 10-inch fireproof casserole 3 inches deep

Preparation

Remove rind, and cut bacon into lardons (sticks, 1/4 inch thick and 1 1/2 inches long). Simmer rind and bacon for 10 minutes in 1 1/2 quarts of water. Drain and dry.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Saute the bacon in the oil over moderate heat for 2 to 3 minutes to brown lightly. Remove to a side dish with a slotted spoon. Set casserole aside. Reheat until fat is almost smoking before you saute the beef.

Dry the beef in paper towels; it will not brown if it is damp. Saute it, a few pieces at a time, in the hot oil and bacon fat until nicely browned on all sides. Add it to the bacon.

In the same fat, brown the sliced vegetables. Pour out the sauteing fat.

Return the beef and bacon to the casserole and toss with the salt and pepper. Then sprinkle on the flour and toss again to coat the beef lightly with the flour. Set casserole uncovered in middle position of preheated oven for 4 minutes. Toss the meat and return to oven for 4 minutes more. (This browns the flour and covers the meat with a light crust.) Remove casserole, and turn oven down to 325 degrees.

Stir in the wine, and enough stock or bouillon so that the meat is barely covered. Add the tomato paste, garlic, herbs, and bacon rind. Bring to simmer on top of the stove. Then cover the casserole and set in lower third of preheated oven. Regulate heat so liquid simmers very slowly for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. The meat is done when a fork pierces it easily.

While the beef is cooking, prepare the onions and mushrooms. Set them aside until needed.

When the meat is tender, pour the contents of the casserole into a sieve set over a saucepan. Wash out the casserole and return the beef and bacon to it. Distribute the cooked onions and mushrooms over the meat

Skim fat off the sauce. Simmer sauce for a minute or two, skimming off additional fat as it rises. You should have about 2 1/2 cups of sauce thick enough to coat a spoon lightly. If too thin, boil it down rapidly. If too thick, mix in a few tablespoons of stock or canned bouillon. Taste carefully for seasoning. Pour the sauce over the meat and vegetables.

(*) Recipe may be completed in advance to this point.

FOR IMMEDIATE SERVING: Cover the casserole and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, basting the meat and vegetables with the sauce several times. Serve in its casserole, or arrange the stew on a platter surrounded with potatoes, noodles, or rice, and decorated with parsley.

FOR LATER SERVING: When cold, cover and refrigerate. About 15 to 20 minutes before serving, bring to the simmer, cover, and simmer very slowly for 10 minutes, occasionally basting the meat and vegetables with the sauce

**OlGNONS GLACES A BRUN

[ Brown-braised Onions]

Brown-braised onions are used whenever you wish a brown effect, such as in brown fricassees like coq au vin and boeuf bourguignon, or in a mixture with other vegetables.

For 18 to 24 peeled white onions about 1 inch in diameter:

1½ Tb butter

1½ Tb oil

A 9- to 10-inch enameled skillet

½ cup of brown stock, canned beef bouillon, dry white wine, red wine, or water

Salt and pepper to taste

A medium herb bouquet: 4 parsley sprigs, ½ bay leaf, and ¼ tsp thyme tied in cheesecloth

When the butter and oil are bubbling in the skillet, add the onions and saute over moderate heat for about IO minutes, rolling the onions about so they will brown as evenly as possible. Be careful not to break their skins. You cannot expect to brown them uniformly.

Then either braise them as follows:

Pour in the liquid. season to taste, and add the herb bouquet. Cover and simmer slowly for 40 to 50 minutes until the onions are perfectly tender but retain their shape, and the liquid has evaporated. Remove herb bouquet. Serve them as they are, or follow one of the suggestions ar the end of the recipe.

Or bake them as follows:

Transfer the onions and their sauteing fat to a shallow baking dish or casserole just large enough to hold them in one layer. Set uncovered in upper third of a preheated 350-degree oven for 40 to 50 minutes, turning them over once or twice. They should be very render, retain their shape, and be a nice golden brown. Remove herb bouquet. Serve them as they are or according to one of the following suggestions.

(**) The onions may be cooked hours in advance, and reheated before serving.

**CHAMPIGNONS SAUTES AU BEURRE

[Sauteed Mushrooms]

Use these mushrooms either as a vegetable alone or in a combination with other vegetables, or as an integral part of such dishes as coq au 11in, boeuf bourguignon, poulet en cocotte. Successfully sauteed mushrooms are lightly browned and exude none of their juice while they are being cooked; to achieve this the mushrooms must be dry, the butter very hot, and the mushrooms must not be crowded in the pan. If you saute too many at once they steam rather than fry; their juices escape and they do not brown. So if you are preparing a large amount, or if your heat source is feeble, saute the mushrooms in several batches.

A 10-inch enameled skillet

2 Tb butter

1 Tb oil

½ lb. fresh mushrooms washed, well dried, left whole if small, sliced or quartered if large

Optional: I to 2 Tb minced shallots or green onions

Salt and pepper

Place the skillet over high heat with the butter and oil. As soon as you see that the butter foam has begun to subside, indicating it is hot enough, add the mushrooms. Toss and shake the pan for 4 to 5 minutes. During their sauce the mushrooms will at first absorb the fat. In 2 to 3 minutes the fat will reappear on their surface. and the mushrooms will begin to brown. As soon as they have browned lightly, remove from heat.

Toss the shallots or green onions with the mushrooms. Same over moderate heat for 2 minutes.

(**) Sauteed mushrooms may be cooked in advance, set aside, then reheated when needed. Season to taste just before serving.

All four recipes excerpted from MASTERING THE ART OF FRENCH COOKING: Volume One Fortieth Anniversary Edition by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck. Copyright © 1961, 1983, 2001 by Alfred A. Knopf. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts website is a wonderful place to visit for stories, videos, the “Inside Julia’s Kitchen” podcasts, grants program and more. Regular updates on Twitter. and Facebook.

Listen to the directors of the new movie Julia on the Foundation podcast.